Most organizations agree that they cannot continue “business as usual” in the post-pandemic era. The buying patterns for cloud services are no exception.

In the past, cloud models drove use cases, but today the opposite is true: Use cases are driving the adoption and selection of cloud and cloud providers. Early cloud adopters embraced disruption and were more risk-tolerant, but as cloud became mainstream, organizations invested in cloud to resist disruption and make incremental improvements.

The proportion of information technology spending that is shifting to cloud will accelerate in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. This is in addition to, and complemented by, requirements to support new and existing digital initiatives as well as the future of work.

The top three reasons enterprises are adopting cloud include IT modernization, improved efficiency and data security, according to the 2020 Gartner Cloud End-User Buying Behavior Survey. Cloud is the backbone of some of the most common digital technologies – edge, 5G, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and the “internet of things,” among others.

Given the role that cloud is playing in modern enterprises, the onus is on IT leaders to guide the executive leadership team and larger enterprise to make better cloud buying decisions based on strategic business needs and goals while employing third-party partners to achieve efficiency and cost savings.

Here’s how:

Focus on outcomes

We all know the strategic role that cloud computing plays across enterprises: They enable digital business and minimize common IT constraints such as limited resources and slower time to value. It’s also important to recognize that cloud migration is not a one-size-fits-all solution because of the variety of factors that must be considered up front when organizations choose to adopt cloud.

Focusing on the outcomes that an organization would like to get from adopting cloud ensures cost-effective cloud spending, the realization of cloud capabilities and easy justification for leaders to expand the use of cloud.

Define cloud initiative outcomes together with senior leadership and align them with business goals. Based on your organization’s culture, is it agility and scalability you’re hoping to achieve with cloud? Business innovation or increased application availability? Collaborate with finance to produce meaningful cost comparisons by aligning potential savings in cloud investments with the organization’s larger business goals.

Don’t do cloud alone

The journey isn’t over after a cloud provider is selected. Organizations must recognize that getting properly onboarded onto cloud platforms may require an extra hand from managed service providers, or MSPs, or global system integrators, or GSIs.

In fact, the same Gartner survey found that 65% of responding cloud decision-makers and advisers indicate that their organizations work with external service providers such as MSPs or other outsourcing providers. Their services encompass three broad categories – advisory, such as consulting, planning, assessment and design services; build, such as migration, implementation and application modernization services; and run, such as managed and support services.

Such partnerships allow organizations to navigate the cloud market in a way that makes sense for their business. In turn, they:

• Accelerate digital business growth.
• Extend market reach.
• Establish credibility within the IT vendor landscape.
• Create awareness of business needs and outcomes.
• Increase leaders’ influence on digital innovation.

Manage risk around five key domains

As with most technology adoption, skepticism naturally arises among stakeholders. Cloud adoption strongly challenges the status quo. The transfer of control to an external provider raises a lot of questions, especially from the most risk-sensitive teams, such as infrastructure and operations, security and governance.

Often, these technical professionals wonder, “How can we continue protecting our business if we are no longer entirely in control?” Cloud-related fear, uncertainty and doubt often centers on unspecified “security” concerns and can be used as an excuse not to move forward. Gartner client inquiries show that organizations perceive cloud risk across five key domains:

Mitigate these risks by focusing on three key aspects — business continuity, cost optimization and security:

• Adopting cloud can be disruptive and should not be done overnight. It’s an evolutionary, ongoing process that should complement rather than jeopardize an organization’s business continuity.   
• Cost containment and optimization remains top of mind for all organizations especially during the ongoing pandemic, so enterprises should put a governance model in place that avoids the potential for cloud cost overruns. Understand the nuances between various cloud pricing models and pick the ones that map business needs to the workloads that need to be moved.
• The recent onslaught of security breaches has put all organizations’ security protocols in the spotlight given the level of risk they bring. This has direct impact to the business continuity and cost aspects, too. Instituting tight security measures such as application and prevention of data breaches and ransomware is critical.

Sid Nag is a research vice president at Gartner Inc. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE, with contributions by Marco Meinardi. Nag and other Gartner experts will discuss the future of cloud and other industry trends with executive leaders at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place virtually in the Americas Oct. 18-21.

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