A strategy is a plan of action. It helps to have one. But a study conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC) for Cisco found that 69% of organizations do not have a mature cloud strategy. And only 3% have an optimized cloud strategy in place. Cisco wants to change all that. So to help businesses accelerate their journey to the cloud, Cisco created a product called Business Cloud Advisor (BCA). And it’s working.
Why You Need a Strategy
It’s a principle that almost goes without saying: Everybody needs a plan. What — you want to leave everything to chance? Sometimes we like to pride ourselves in our ability to think on our feet. We go from one thing to another and pat ourselves on the back after we have managed an obstacle course of responsibilities on a given day. But a haphazard operation can lead to disastrous results. Even those who don’t have a written plan should have a clear idea of what lies ahead.
A lackadaisical approach to cloud adoption will have limited success. You know that you want to get around to migrating more of your infrastructure to the cloud, but maybe it’s not the highest priority right now. Even so, a clear assessment of where you stand and the next steps to take you on your journey to the cloud can do wonders for your IT environment.
IDC and Cisco have given a lot of thought to the way organizations approach the cloud. They see cloud adoption as a continuum. Here is the range of profiles according to IDC:
- No Strategy: 22%
- Ad Hoc: 28%
- Opportunistic: 19%
- Repeatable: 17%
- Managed: 11%
- Optimized: 3%
The first step to developing a mature cloud strategy, as one might think, is to realize that you need one. Knowing that you need a (better) plan will make you more receptive to options for handling your movement to the cloud.
The BCA Framework
To help you on your way in your journey to the cloud, Cisco has structured the Business Cloud Advisor in three sections. The first part they call Latest Cloud Trends. This includes infobriefs, white papers, and country spotlights. The second is a Quick Self-Assessment. This will help an organization see where they stand. It even results in a customized BCA Adoption Report. The third facet of the program is called Deeper Insights and Recommendations. This includes a BCA Workshop and Domain Ten, an end-to-end view of your data center and IT infrastructure.
The research provided by IDC is pretty robust. Just to get an idea, have a look at a sample called “Cloud Adoption: Country Highlights”. You can even download the full report from there. IDC conducted interviews with more than 6,100 enterprise IT leaders across 31 countries. They say that the cloud is going mainstream, and that cloud adoption will allow organizations to:
- Improve strategic allocation of IT budgets
- Lower IT costs
- Reduce time to provision IT services
- Increase revenue
- Improve ability to meet SLAs
IDC’s research is a pretty good start to a comprehensive program. Cisco BCA can help any organization improve their cloud adoption strategy by increasing awareness and setting a plan in motion. And the consultation is customized to each organization.
A Multicloud Approach
What is the cloud? Ask ten different people and you may get ten different answers. For some, it’s about what the cloud does. They might think of the cloud in terms of Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Others might just think of it is something “out there” that remains a bit of a mystery. The cloud can mean many things to many people.
It may help to think of cloud services in terms of public or private. Some applications and data may be so sensitive that they should never be migrated to the public cloud. But in our new mobile IT environment, accessing cloud resources from any location and any device may make public cloud infrastructure a good idea. And a hybrid cloud — not easily defined — could combine aspects of both private and public cloud computing. Moving to the cloud requires a lot of planning and forethought.
The Cisco Business Cloud Advisor takes into account these complexities. In the BCA Workshop, experts can help you and your organization craft a multicloud strategy. By the time you are done, you will have • assessed your multicloud adoption capabilities and gained insights into how the cloud can benefit your business.
Conclusion
Of course, no one understands everything about cloud computing. But in today’s business environment, no organization can afford to remain in the dark about its challenges, benefits and capabilities. Cisco Business Cloud Advisor can shed light on your cloud adoption situation and help you develop a mature strategy for optimizing your cloud computing infrastructure. Yes, the journey to the cloud is worth it. And Cisco Business Cloud Advisor will help you get there.