Lift-and-Shift Is Not Enough

Cloud Services Such as Amazon Web Services (Aws), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Appeal to Many Organizations Because of Their Stated Features: Pay-per-Use, Ability to Scale up or Down Based on Usage, High Resiliency, Self-Service, Etc. All These Benefits Are Expected to Lead to Much Lower It Costs, Faster Time-to-Market and Better Service Quality Compared with Traditional It Offerings.

Benefits of Automating It Processes Through Cloud

Historically, Enterprise Business Applications Have Been Designed to Run on Custom-Configured It Systems, Each Application Requiring Its Own Heavily Customized Configuration of Computer Storage and Network Resources. as a Result, It Needed Armies of Administrators Just to Keep Systems Updated and Running, to Manually Add New Capacity When Demand Is High, or Apply Quick Fixes for Issues Such as Low Performance. as the Number of It Solutions Has Increased, So Has the Overhead Necessary for Testing, Integration, and Maintenance. in a Typical Enterprise, Just a Fraction of It Personnel Is Focused on Designing and Developing the Market-Differentiating Solutions the Business Cares About; the Rest Are Working Simply to Keep the Lights On.

How to Approach the Cloud Transformation

Fully Embracing Cloud Can Have a Significant Upside but Also Requires Substantial Upfront Investments in What Is Often a Multiyear Journey. for This Reason, an All-in Transformation Approach Needs Active Commitment and a Clear Mandate from the Ceo and Board over the Long Term (See Sidebar, “A Tale of All-in Transformation”).

1. Decide on Sourcing.

It’s Difficult for Most Companies to Build Their Own Cloud Technology Stack and Even Harder to Maintain It. Partnering with Public Cloud Providers to Build and Manage the Cloud Stack Is the More Typical Approach. in Most Cases, the Pragmatic Way to Start Is with a Single Cloud Service Provider While Adopting the Necessary Guiding Principles to Avoid Being Locked into One Provider. After Achieving a Certain Scale and Level of Maturity—in Our Experience, a Good Rule of Thumb Is to Plan for an Annual Run Rate of $30 Million with the Primary Cloud Service Provider—an Enterprise Can Explore a Second or Third Service Provider for Scaling Up.

2. Create a Public-Cloud Operating Model.

Unlike Traditional Operating Models, the Public Cloud Requires It to Manage Infrastructure as Code. This Requires Software Engineers Who Understand the Compute, Storage, and Security Protocols of Public Cloud (As Opposed to Network Engineers or System Administrators). for Most Enterprises, This Translates to a Massive Upskilling of the Infrastructure Organization and the Operating Model in Which They Work. Specific Teams Need to Be Assigned to Configure and Manage the Production Environment.

3. Legacy-Application Remediation.

Existing Applications Will Need to Be Refactored at the Infrastructure and Application Layers to Align with the Security and Capacity Requirements of the Public Cloud. Security Must Be Baked into These Applications, and They Must Work in a More Automated Fashion. This Requires Significant Attention from Application Teams, Which Can Be Hard to Get.

4. Cultivating the Right Skills.

Professionals Must Be Able to Develop Applications on the Cloud (Specifically on the Vendor’s System) Securely and Quickly. to Do This, Companies Will Need to Hire and Train Cloud Experts and Then Introduce Them into Development Teams, Retrain or Upskill the Existing Workforce, and Set up Digital-Innovation Labs as Needed with an Emphasis on Cloud Development.

The Rules of the Cloud Game

There Are Many Actions Enterprises Can Take That Have Proved Valuable to Early Adopters of Cloud-Enabled Next-Generation Infrastructure. These Include, but Are Not Limited to:

Cloud Adoption to Accelerate It Modernization

By Chloe Bennett

• Oct 9, 2026 • 12 min read

Cloud Adoption to Accelerate It Modernization

Direct Answer • Key Takeaway

Cloud-Computing Adoption Has Been Increasing Rapidly, with Cloud-Specific Spending Expected to Grow at More Than Six Times the Rate of General It Spending Through 2020. While Large Organizations Have Successfully Implemented Specific Software-as-a-Service (Saas) Solutions or Adopted a Cloud-First Strategy for New Systems, Many Are Struggling to Get the Full Value of Moving the Bulk of Their Enterprise Systems to the Cloud.

Chloe Bennett

Culture, Media & Entertainment Columnist

Chloe Bennett explores the intersection of pop culture, streaming entertainment, digital trends, and contemporary lifestyle. Her weekly commentary reaches thousands of culture enthusiasts.

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