We must face the facts: cloud migration is on the rise. Indeed, infrastructure deployments in the cloud will double by 2015, and nearly 200,000 UK cloud jobs will be created.
Therefore, CIOs must acknowledge that the clouds are here and not going anywhere. So what questions should a CIO be asking himself when moving to the cloud, even if he is completely unwilling to do so?
Below are some tips for any CIO who is either contemplating a move to the cloud or pushed to do so by their CFO or CEO.
How do I understand what clouds are and what they can do for the company?
Just as the "understanding" and "adoption" of the cloud grows, so does the hype around the clouds. Everyone is talking about the benefits that can be achieved by moving to the cloud, but can the CIO truly understand what the clouds can do for their business?
Consequently, the CIO needs to define the business case for the cloud — first identifying the company's needs by engaging board members (management and company owners) to figure out what's with the business now and what plans the company has for the future. And based on the information received, together with your IT team, select those cloud solutions that best match the business model and goals.
How can I be completely honest in disclosing how much my IT department is costing the company?
Despite the fact that the budget announced by George Osborne (UK Treasury Secretary) is not entirely pessimistic, the UK continues to have difficult economic times. Therefore, costs are now closely monitored across all parts of the business (like never before), and this affects the IT department as well.
However, can the CIO spend their budget more efficiently? Can the IT department independently create a good, well-maintained infrastructure, similar to what, for example, service providers can do? Probably not. So why do we constantly see teams of five IT professionals in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where at least two of them are dedicated to just supporting the infrastructure?
This is clearly not the best use of their time, and certainly not an option to use an already meager IT budget technical support technician.
After all, people are not only the best asset of the company, they are also the largest investment of the business, and if you can reduce costs by moving your business to the cloud, why don't CIOs want to do it?
This budget can be used in other areas within the IT department in order to acquire useful new applications or new skills that will enable the IT team to meet key business challenges. This will certainly give the CIO some significant points (merit) to the CEO.
Am I clear enough about my reasons for moving to the cloud to management?
From the way the business is moving, CIOs need to literally embrace the cloud if they want to stay strong in the company.
Very often, fearing for their jobs and the work of their teams, CIOs “deceive” their management by overloading them with too many technical terms to confuse them, so that they do not have to move to the clouds on the orders of management.
But if the CFO gets the facts on his own about how cloud technologies can potentially save companies hundreds of thousands of pounds, then the CIO's job will be in question.
That is, the CIO must not only provide the facts about what the cloud can do for the business, but also speak honestly with management about the true value of the IT department. He simply must present to management the cost-saving path that can be achieved by moving to the cloud, and state the reasons for the transition to the cloud that will be most appropriate and relevant for the company.
Is IT the best protection for the business?
One of the key challenges for a CIO is to keep the business as safe and secure as possible, and there are two separate areas that need to be considered: how is data security ensured and does the company have a clear Disaster Recovery (DR) policy?
Data security will always be one of the top priorities for business - after all, violation of security rules can lead to the fact that competitors steal your ideas, take your customers away, and your confidential data (for example, data for the next financial year) will become public. All this can be a real disaster for the future of any business.
But how many organizations can confidently say that their data would be more secure if stored “at home,” versus storing data in a well-secured Tier 4, ISO 27001: 2005 data center from accredited cloud providers? These options are simply not comparable.
Second, the importance and significance of a Disaster Recovery (DR) policy cannot be underestimated. In the event of a fire in a company's server room, without a DR policy in place, important data could be destroyed, or at least damaged, seriously damaging the company's shareholder value and reputation.
Why risk it? How much does it cost a company to lose all its data ?!
IT specialists of the company can hardly afford to create a secondary, redundant infrastructure, purchase equipment and equipment necessary to launch the infrastructure, site, database in case of natural disasters. And it's much easier to build a DR policy in the cloud.
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