Put the excitement around your cloud adoption to good use. And in context. Manage the message. Secure regulatory approval. Proceed.

This article is part of the limited preview of the “The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap”, a generic roadmap for any enterprise cloud adoption programme.

1. Executive Summary
2. The Cloud and Enterprises
3. The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap
   1. The Cloud Programme Roadmap
   2. The First Iteration of The Cloud Programme Roadmap
   3. The Unavoidable Disclaimer
   4. The Roadmap for The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap
   5. The Manual for the Missing Manual
   6. Building the Business Case
      1. Key Achievements
      2. The Definition of Cloud
      3. The Rationale for the Cloud Programme
      4. Managing the Message
      5. Securing Regulatory Approval
      6. Connecting With Your Peers
      7. Recording Outcomes: The Cloud Manifesto
   7. Starting the Cloud Programme
   8. Iteratively Building the Delivery Pipeline
   9. Iteratively Executing the Delivery Pipeline
4. A Cloudy Future

Managing the Message

Fathoming out the above questions — especially why an organisation should adopt the cloud and what it expects to gain from it — most likely spreads the word about there potentially being a cloud programme into the far corners of the organisation.

While the excitement and enthusiasm this creates can be a catalyst for the realisation of the programme, managing the message — and more importantly — the expectations in the organisation is crucial.

Dampen the expectations and clearly communicate that a cloud adoption will not be “a magic wand that will solve all problems”. Some agonies will be resolved. Some will remain. New ones will be added. The expected total net result on the organisation will be positive.

Intelligent people will rightfully demand rationales for the above. Hence, easily understandable summaries of the details worked out in the previous sections should be included in communications with the organisation.

Securing Regulatory Approval

Before the organisation’s grande motivations and anticipated outcomes can be translated into a cloud programme, they first need to obtain regulatory approval. By permitting or prohibiting uses cases, the regulators have the power to influence and shape cloud programmes.

Securing the crucial regulatory approval starts by obtaining written ratifications from all involved regulators for generally utilising the cloud in the first place as well as in the way anticipated by the organisation. Here, the former serves as a rapid circuit breaker while the latter unambiguously clarifies the specific use cases of the organisation.

Thankfully, regulators have become more open to the use of the cloud over the past years. However, in some industries, a common regulatory framework still seems to be a somewhat distant goal.

For those regulators who permit the use of cloud, several already mandate the use of multiple CSPs or regions. In combination with simultaneous limitations on the use of certain regions due to data sovereignty constraints, this can significantly impact the general architectural decisions; both on multi-cloud and multi-region adoption strategy. Note that the impact of these decision on compliance and controls also needs to be carefully assessed.

Connecting With Your Peers

Find out more about it in the next article.

So, How Do You Manage the Message and Secure Regulatory Approval?!

While the above Worx for Me!™ when it comes to managing the message and securing regulatory approval, you may have an alternative or better way.

Think this is all rubbish, massively overrated, or generally heading into the absolutely wrong direction?! Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and teach me something new!

As always, prove me wrong and I’ll buy you a pint!