Many organisations have successfully transitioned to the cloud, finding themselves within environments like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. However, the question remains: What happens next? This next phase is what we call The Second Cloud Transformation.
Situational Awareness and Understanding the Landscape
When organisations move to the cloud, they typically follow familiar patterns. For example, in MVC architectures, services are divided into containers, user interfaces, and a persistence tier with a database. These transitions often mirror on-premises configurations, creating a digital replica in the cloud. While this approach gets things started, it does little to unlock the full potential of cloud capabilities.
In this second phase, organisations need to develop situational awareness of their cloud landscape. Tools like Wardley Maps help businesses understand where they are and anticipate what will come next. This awareness is essential to leveraging the cloud’s unique advantages, such as scalability, cost-effectiveness, and rapid innovation.
Creating Space for Innovation
A “lift-and-shift” migration often leaves organisations performing the same tasks—like server patching—but in a different environment. This limits innovation. The second transformation requires organisations to rethink their processes, enabling space for innovation.
To embrace this change, businesses must:
- Upskill teams to navigate the cloud’s complexities.
- Redefine decision-making processes, allowing teams to experiment and adapt.
- Foster a culture of exploration while managing the fear of making the wrong choice.
A lack of familiarity with cloud-native principles can leave teams stuck in an on-premises mindset, hesitant to adopt new technologies. Overcoming this barrier requires clear guidance, strong leadership, and the right educational resources.
Moving Beyond On-Premises Thinking
For many teams, their reference point remains rooted in traditional data centre operations. This mindset restricts their ability to fully embrace the cloud. Key questions arise:
- What does a good cloud solution look like for our context?
- How do we align cloud strategies with business goals?
The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides a roadmap, offering best practices and critical questions to help organisations assess and improve their cloud solutions. By adopting these principles, teams can avoid “renting a fancy data centre” and instead leverage the cloud’s transformative capabilities.
Telemetry and Data-Driven Insights
The transition to the cloud introduces unparalleled telemetry and observability. Organisations gain visibility into:
- Costs and resource utilisation.
- Performance metrics for applications and infrastructure.
- Real-time data to drive decision-making.
As Shaun Braun of 3M explains, the true transformation begins when businesses measure and optimise their cloud presence. By leveraging telemetry, organisations can shut down unnecessary systems, refine operations, and deliver greater value.
Modernising Infrastructure and Processes
Many enterprises face challenges in fully modernising their infrastructure post-migration. Common struggles include:
- Account creation and management.
- Observability and monitoring.
- Security compliance and governance.
Effective communication and collaboration between engineering and security teams are critical. Tools like Northstar and Threat Modelling facilitate these conversations, ensuring alignment across teams and reducing barriers.
Rethinking Principles and Empowering Teams
The cloud demands a paradigm shift. Teams must return to first principles, asking fundamental questions about their systems:
- What does good performance look like?
- How can we optimise throughput and scalability?
Empowering teams to make architecture and design decisions—rather than imposing top-down mandates—is crucial. Teams closest to the business problems are best positioned to make impactful choices, provided they have the right support and resources.
Encouraging Safe Experimentation
Innovation thrives in environments where teams feel safe to experiment. By setting enabling constraints—such as policies for service usage, safety mechanisms, and feedback loops—organisations can foster creativity without compromising security or performance.
Feedback mechanisms like CFN lint and CFN nag provide developers with guidance, ensuring they’re on the right path while learning from mistakes. This creates a culture of continuous improvement and confidence.
Assessing Organisational Capabilities
The second transformation requires an honest evaluation of organisational capabilities. Teams must understand security, governance, and architecture principles to succeed. This phase fills gaps in knowledge and skills, creating well-rounded teams that can adapt to evolving challenges.
Books like “Accelerate” by Nicole Forsgren and “Reaching Cloud Velocity” by Jonathan Allen offer valuable frameworks for understanding what good looks like in the cloud. These resources highlight critical metrics like deployment frequency and system stability, helping organisations benchmark their progress.
Proven Industry Practices for Transformation
The second cloud transformation is not an uncharted journey. Proven practices and resources provide a solid foundation for success. By leveraging industry insights, businesses can:
- Build high-performance teams.
- Streamline decision-making processes.
- Drive meaningful, value-oriented change.
The first step to the cloud is just the beginning. The second transformation is where the real value emerges. By empowering teams, embracing new paradigms, and leveraging proven frameworks, organisations can unlock the full potential of the cloud.
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