Everyone’s talking about the necessity and convenience of moving to a cloud. The overall adoption of the cloud is still modest, but the forecasts show us that, if companies still haven’t had replaced most of their financial tracking applications and accounting systems with cloud apps, they plan to do so within 2 years. According to some surveys, CEOs believe that their companies’ CFOs should invest more in cloud-based financial systems.
A lot of enterprises today have a hybrid cloud strategy. The adoption of cloud continues to grow and it’s becoming quite tricky to ignore. Cloud adoption also brings changes to company culture, and there are various factors one must take into consideration before taking this big step. The cultural factor can often slip an enterprise’s mind, and if not handled correctly, cloud adoption could have damaging effects to an enterprise. However, if implemented properly, your company and workforce will embrace many positive changes that come with it and hit the ground running.
These are some of the most important cultural changes when migrating to the cloud.
Working with other departments
Prior to cloud computing, shadow IT has been an issue and continues to be so with the incorporation of the cloud. Organisations are suggested to hold a “cloud amnesty”, and as they most likely use certain cloud solutions in their business now, they should be aware of them. Departments should be asked to specify which cloud tools they use, so CEOs can see which efficiencies could be further gained through aggregations. Otherwise, services can be duplicated, which will lead to wasted spending, reduced bargaining power, and more shadow IT headaches. With a more efficient and greater engagement in technology should be welcomed, as well as the tech’s potential from other departments.
Acceptance of change
The project may become difficult to fall if a business tries to push cloud computing onto a resistant IT culture. What if the hardware-supporting technicians who like building servers find that they have to work as cloud providers if they want to carry on working? Servers will most likely become an outdated resource, so technicians will have to understand the change, accept it, and shift from their old mindset. Employees may even rebel against cloud strategy, because losing access to the physical servers may affect their confidence and ability. Thus, it is crucial to get everyone involved, give them power and time to evaluate new technologies, which will make them feel open-minded and empowered.
New skills
You need new skills if you’re going to venture into new technology or operating model. When migrating to the cloud, the most essential skills are project management skills, financial and business skills, technical, security, and compliance skills. Simply, one can’t use cloud base project management tools effectively if he hasn’t learned how to and acquired specific new skills. This work can be outsourced, but it will be more cost-effective to have in-house skills. When it comes to managing cloud services, the most important skill sets are contractual and negotiation skills. The blend of skills (from technical to commercial and legal) is really extraordinary. You can change your business’ direction quickly if you have your people managing software on your servers in your facilities.
Keeping everyone updated
Frequent communication, transparency, and inclusion should help the IT team remain focused and address employee concerns. It’s a new way of working for many organisations, but any concerns that staff might have can be allayed by keeping everyone updated, all the time, about what’s happening, when it’s happening, and why it’s happening. Keeping people updated means raising awareness through proper training.
Need to control the cloud-service providers’ influence
Cloud service providers can influence your entire roadmap, as it is their technology, even if your staff is proactive, skilled, and with good negotiation skills. CIOs will have to accept this fact, and not be surprised if they find their strategies and workloads are being driven by the latest cloud-service developments. Cloud service providers can significantly influence their selection choices, but also change their terms of service or product capabilities, asking whether this would suit you as the end user.
Will you need to adapt your business’ strategy to fit those tech changes? Or will you need to spend money and time sourcing a new provider? When it comes to adopting new technology for the business, it’s likely that the tail will be wagging the dog, and not the other way around. This is a potential roadblock for every cloud practitioner.
There’s a wide array of challenges that enterprises face today. New digital technology and economy are creating new exciting opportunities as well as competitive threats. It’s up to CFOs to respond to these issues (for many organisations), and they can be successful only by making their companies agile, lean, and responsive. This is why cloud computing is so essential since it provides the competitive advantage that modern companies need to thrive. Using technology must power growth, and enable true control, visibility, and agility, so companies can adapt and operate as they need.
