What is a cloud readiness assessment?

Any organization moving to the cloud must first evaluate its current operations. More specifically, organizations must evaluate their business, people, processes, and technology for readiness to move to the cloud.

The primary goal of an assessment is to provide your leadership team with the clarity of vision and concrete steps required to successfully adopt the cloud.

Why do you want to move to the cloud?

Strategy

Understanding why your business wants to move to the cloud is essential before developing a strategy for doing so. Another thing to keep in mind is getting agreement from the entire team on the business objectives to make sure that everyone understands the goal and comprehends the business rationale behind switching to the cloud. You won't be able to choose wisely along the way unless you have clearly defined and attainable goals.

The following are some of the most common business goals for cloud migration:

• Avoiding the maintenance expenses associated with data centers
• Increasing scalability for high-demand or distributed services
• Shifting from a CAPEX model to OPEX for more IT infrastructure and technology agility and lowered system level maintenance.
• Modernizing for shorter time to market and competitive advantages
• Identifying new business models that are only possible because of cloud technologies

Best Practice Tips

The time spent performing a cloud readiness assessment will be some of the most valuable time in a cloud project. Based on the results of the cloud readiness assessment, you can support your client in deciding on the migration for each application in terms of:

Success factors for your cloud assessment:

People

Everyone's tolerance for change can be very different. Ask:
- Do the teams have the right skills?
- Do the teams have the time to focus on the migration?
- Are there conflicting priorities?
- Are they equipped with the necessary migration tools and technologies?

Security

It is crucial for any organization to evaluate its current security measures and determine its security and compliance needs. This helps to align your security needs with the right cloud platform(s).

Technology

Some applications might be at or near the end of their lives, and others are simply outdated utilities that need to be replaced. A proper assessment helps identify and categorize the application landscape to guide the right decisions.