For forward-looking financial services firms today, cloud transformation is not merely an option, but a strategic imperative.
However, the pathway to cloud transformation success is beset with challenges that can derail even the most well-intentioned efforts. Corinium recently partnered with Google Cloud and Deloitte on a whitepaper that explores some of the most common challenges that cause cloud transformation catastrophes.
What’s more, the report outlines key steps that senior leaders can take to mitigate these challenges. Featuring insights from Andy Lees, Global Financial Services Google Lead Partner at Deloitte, and Ulku Rowe, Engineering Director, CTO Office, Google Cloud, this report is an invaluable resource for any business or data professional leading the cloud transformation charge in their organization.
Today we’re excited to share with you an extract from the report. You can find a link to the full paper below.
Aligning Cloud Transformation and Business Strategies for Growth and Performance
Recent research from Gartner reveals that enterprise information technology (IT) spending on public cloud computing is set to overtake spending on traditional IT for enterprise software, infrastructure software, business process services, and system infrastructure markets in 2025.
Also, research conducted by Corinium Intelligence last year in the United States and Europe found that 89% of data and analytics leaders planned to invest in cloud-native platforms by the end of 2022, indicating a strong ongoing push toward cloud adoption.
At the same time, 56% of data leaders were still struggling to determine their cloud strategies. The findings indicate that while many companies are already investing in and adopting cloud technologies, a substantial proportion of data leaders, pivotal to steering the cloud transformation strategy, are still overcoming challenges in strategy formation.
This gap, if unaddressed, at best could mean the organization is impairing the business case and value proposition, but at worst could lead to poorly planned and executed cloud adoption, setting these initiatives up for failure despite the significant investments being made.
Prioritizing Organizational Change Management for Better Outcomes
The cloud equips organizations with the capacity to expedite development cycles and shift ideas into production swiftly. As a result, the adoption of cloud technology requires a profound shift in processes, systems, attitudes, and behaviors.
Research conducted by Corinium Intelligence revealed that securing executive support for business transformation, bringing cross-functional experts together, and promoting adoption were the top three challenges for data leaders as they drive data cultures. Considering this, it is critical for data leaders to champion and cultivate a new mindset throughout the organizations – from top to bottom.
This includes communicating and promoting fresh perspectives and approaches to business challenges. Fostering a culture that embraces transformation helps to align teams, dismantle silos, and empower staff to generate and test novel ideas.
“Cultural transformation is one of the most critical parts of a cloud migration,” says Rowe. “People usually migrate to the cloud because they want faster access to innovation. This does not happen without a cultural change. It requires a different way of thinking across the organization.” In addition, as cloud adoption scales, organizations face a transformative shift, moving beyond the migration process itself towards a new business model centred on innovation, according to Lees.
“Creating different business models through the capabilities acquired from having adopted cloud at scale involves a business change, a level of innovation, and a different cultural mindset,” says Lees.
“If organizations don't make these changes, the massive investment they've made into cloud transformation will start to lose value. Cultural transformation is going to be massively important to our clients as they go through that investment period.”
Read the full report: Doomed to Fail? Avoiding Common and Costly Cloud Transformation Pitfalls here
