So your business wants to remain competitive. You know that to remain competitive you need business agility. You also need the kind of business capabilities that will allow you to grow as needed while making sure that it is also cost-effective. You also know about the cloud. You understand that the cloud is cost-efficient. You have no doubts there are many benefits in moving some or all of your services to the cloud. So, you made the decision. You got the business leadership on board.
A year later, you are in the cloud. You hired a cloud integration service provider. They deliver a project with some good-looking dashboards. However, you realize that you are now suffering some of the cloud’s unintended consequences.
Unintended consequences
- Out of control consumption. You have no clear understanding of your consumption.
- Out of control cost. One month your invoice goes for $140k, the next month it goes for $190k, then it goes back down to $130k.
- Misaligned staff. Your IT administrators no longer administer your servers. They are supposed to do cloud service management, but they do not have the skills.
- Lack of process. Your company does not have the necessary processes to perform cloud service management.
Does this sound familiar? More and more customers are realizing these gaps in their cloud services, and they seek help.
The following are some recommendations to get you started on how you can avoid these unintended consequences.
Recommendations
- Establish a decision making process. The cloud is no longer a one-provider market. There are many players in the industry. Realize that the best provider at times is not the best provider for the business.
- Uplift admin resources to become cloud service managers. IT admins will almost disappear in five years. This role needs to be uplifted.
- Establish consumption management processes. Tools are not enough. Remember, a fool with a tool is still a fool.
- Uplift your team to communicate with the business in business terms. IT is no longer firefighting; they now have the time to improve business services. Embrace this opportunity.
- Forget about standard dashboards. You need dashboards, but not a one-fits-all solution. You need customized dashboards that are linked to business services and business value. Simplicity is king. Forget about those overcrowded dashboards and get one that directly complements your business needs.
The image above says it all. You thought of the cloud. You took the business to the cloud. Now cover all bases and make sure you do not go from hero to zero for lack of planning and not implementing a cloud service management process.
Carmelo Milian is co-founder and CEO of OneCloud, LLC. He has over 20 years of experience in service management helping customers across Latin America and the United States, first as a senior operations consultant for Microsoft and now as the OneCloud CEO.