Digital Transformations Through Cloud Enablement at (AWS) re:Invent

Your culture could be the biggest obstacle to your harvesting the benefits of a shift to the cloud. Of course there are technical and data challenges, but they are surmountable; the business case for a transition can be complex, but it is not an impossible task. However, the sunlit uplands of business value driven by cloud capabilities requires a new way of working, not just for the technology teams but for the whole organization. So, the question then becomes one of pace and how organizations can transform to utilize cloud capabilities to accelerate their digital transformations.

As William Gibson said “the future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed “. There are proven operating models that can really exploit the opportunities of the cloud, they are just not as common or as easy to establish as many would hope. It is a real paradigm shift for some technology teams to operate their businesses in the public or hybrid cloud as compared with their traditional on-premises operations. Bottleneck areas include constraints by legacy cultures and processes, and talent as well as technical skills. After all, mastering the capabilities needed for the cloud is not like just pushing a button. There are different tooling and mentalities that make the process a bit more complicated.

The new primary  challenge with cloud enabled digital transformations is really about people. Companies must lay the necessary groundwork needed to execute a change program for their people before, or in parallel with, the execution of a change program for their technology. Once the organization’s culture and people are aligned with a digital transformation, the actual cloud architecture and other technical architecture pieces can be synchronized. We have often found that for the companies that aren’t making the progress they want, it's not because the cloud doesn't provide a great technology alternative -- it's because they have not viewed the program holistically. 

A shift to the cloud can make technology teams more agile, they can create a proof of concept and minimum viable product more quickly and with very little cost, conceptually making innovation and collaboration more seamless. But innovation only moves at the pace of the slowest element of the team.  A common stumbling block is that the technology group has shifted to an agile way of working, facilitated by the cloud, but the business or operations just cannot adjust to the same level of dexterity. The cloud can enable a change in the way the business and tech teams interact and operate together, but it doesn't happen by accident.

Organizations who can successfully navigate a transition to the cloud and new ways of working open for themselves new vistas of innovation. Complicated capabilities such as AI and NLP are more accessible and the available repertoire of tools and assets expand. So, as the sandpit gets larger and the opportunities the cloud creates evolve, the cost of the sand and the ability to adapt get a little lighter.