Thinking cloud adoption is a technology-based “lift and shift” move from on-premises data centers to a singular cloud provider is a rookie mistake. As early adopters found, digital transformation is a holistic journey that involves technological adoption and cultural change.

The concept of a single vendor public cloud has rapidly become a hybrid, multicloud provider model. And the journey from traditional operations to hybrid is a complex and hazardous one. How do companies get from “let’s modernize” to operating smoothly across on-prem, multiple clouds and at the edge?

“They need a structured approach to help them through that journey,” said Alexia Clements (pictured, left), vice president of worldwide sales and GTM leader for HPE GreenLake at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. “I think of it as a recipe to make a meal. You need to know what ingredients to buy and what are the steps to perform to make that meal.”

Clements and Alexey Gerasimov (pictured, right), VP of advisory and solutions, worldwide hybrid cloud practice, at HPE, spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the HPE GreenLake Announcement event. They discussed how HPE’s Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework helps companies efficiently move to the ideal hybrid operational model for their strategic goals. (* Disclosure below.)

Transformation is about business outcomes, not cool technology

HPE identified eight key areas of focus in the digital transformation journey, according to Gerasimov. These are strategy and governance, innovation, people, applications, DevOps, data, security and operations. The framework has been structured around these areas, ensuring that customers receive the maximum value from their transformation.

The biggest stumbling blocks most organizations face are people skills and organizational capabilities “because it’s an operating model change, and people are the key component to this operating model change,” according to Gerasimov.

By following HPE’s Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework, customers can figure out how to achieve that optimal operating level and reach model maturity. Which technology to use is a minor consideration, according to Gerasimov. This is because transformation has a much wider scope than investing in new technology and also because many companies already have existing vendor relationships in place, something HPE aims to support.

“There’s really not a single element of the framework that says tech, like storage or compute, because the goal for us is being objective … we’re just trying to help them address the outcomes, not necessarily to give them more tech,” Gerasimov stated.

At the end of the day, the goal of moving to the cloud is about maximizing business outcomes and gaining value. And this is the outcome that the HPE Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework was built to realize.

“We’re helping customers accelerate their business outcomes, de-risk their transformation and really optimize that cloud operating model,” Gerasimov said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE GreenLake Announcement event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the An HPE GreenLake Announcement event. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE