Ten commandments for faster cloud modernization

McKinsey got this one right: Cloud migrations get off track quickly if you don't take the right steps. Here are 10 tips for success – I agree with all of them!

I’ve written before about McKinsey and their often misguided advice, but their post on cloud modernization is really spot-on. Well worth the read, especially if you are contemplating a new project in the cloud.¹

If you’re new, welcome to Customer Obsessed Engineering! Every week I publish a new article, direct to your mailbox if you’re a subscriber. As a free subscriber you can read about half of every article, plus all of my free articles.

Anytime you'd like to read more, you can upgrade to a paid subscription. A paid subscription also gives you full access to the playbook.

Their premise is sound: If you don’t line up a solid foundation for your cloud modernization, you’ll spend a lot more time and money than you planned.

A few of their points that really resonated for me:

• Optimize technology to enable the fastest ‘idea-to-live’ process. I couldn’t agree more — focus on automation and eschew old-fashioned manual steps in favor of capturing your control processes in your delivery pipeline. Also be sure to align your team around delivering smaller, higher value increments, something I wrote about in my post on using a steel thread.

• Don’t just design the cloud architecture so it can scale, but design for elasticity too. In other words, design for scaling up on demand, and down whenever demand starts to fall off. Automation is key here — if manual steps are involved, you aren’t elastic.

• Use the cloud that already exists, and avoid over-engineering or being too reliant on a single provider. If you design from the ground-up to be “cloud agnostic,” you’ll leverage multiple benefits: Ease of migration is one, but being able to use the most fit-for-purpose service across different cloud vendors keeps your costs low and improves capability.

• I tend to agree with offering cloud products, not cloud services or, at least, having a customer oriented mindset. I’m fine with providing cloud services so long as they are treated like a product and you view service consumers as being as important as your customers.

• McKinsey points out that teams should not reinvent either their deployment pipeline or base capabilities. Absolutely! Use stereotypes, templates, and create a deployment pipeline that operates like a service catalog. Reinventing is always wasted effort — but be careful you don’t lock rigidly into patterns your team can’t break out of. Innovation is also important, so give them an avenue to introduce evolutionary changes and whole new approaches.

Check out McKinsey’s article. And let me know if the comments if you’d like to hear more of my own perspectives on cloud modernizations strategy.

One word of caution, though — while these 10 points are excellent, they won’t answer all your questions or set you up for success in and of themselves. As well as following through on McKinsey’s 10 “commandments,” be sure you have an adequate cloud modernization roadmap. Every cloud modernization is unique and riddled with decisions that you’ll need to navigate carefully. Be sure your modernization team has a track record of success and a proven delivery model.

1. Aaron Bawcom, Sebastian Becerra, Beau Bennett, and Bill Gregg, Cloud foundations: Ten commandments for faster—and more profitable—cloud migrations, McKinsey Digital, April 21 2022.