Migrating to the cloud but worried your organization — or your data — isn’t up to the challenge?
An enterprise data intelligence solution can accelerate and simplify your migration journey. More importantly, it lays a foundation for data governance and data quality that can fuel your organization with the trusted data that drives decision-making.
To achieve data cloud migration success, we recommend a 4-step process that we explore in our helpful ebook: Four steps to successfully power your data cloud migration with data intelligence.
But before you kick off your data cloud migration initiative, there’s a lot you can do to pave the way to success. One of the most important and effective steps is to ensure you create the conditions for organizational buy-in.
Cloud rules
In today’s digital economy, the cloud is much more than a trend. According to Gartner, by 2025 almost all businesses — 85% — will adopt a cloud-first approach.*
Yet, this transformative journey demands both technological expertise and strategic vision.
A successful data cloud migration hinges on a well crafted 4-step strategy: planning, executing, monitoring and optimizing.
Each of these steps, while critical in their own right, is significantly amplified in effectiveness when there is solid buy-in across all levels of the organization. In fact, the impact of your data cloud migration can be significantly enhanced by deep-rooted buy-in across your organization with stakeholders such as:
- Executives
- Business leaders
- IT
Executive buy-in: The foundation
The journey to effective cloud migration begins with the vision and endorsement of an organization’s leadership.
Executive buy-in is not merely beneficial; it’s a cornerstone of migration success. This commitment from the top down does more than allocate resources; it shapes the entire organizational mindset towards the cloud initiative.
And their buy-in helps to ensure your cloud migration initiative is not viewed in isolation but as a pivotal part of the broader business objectives. For instance, if a company’s goal is to enhance customer experience through advanced analytics, executives can champion the cloud as a means to achieve this, ensuring alignment across various departments.
- Securing necessary resources and budget
- Facilitating cross-functional collaboration
- Driving cultural change
Securing necessary resources and budget
One of the most tangible manifestations of executive buy-in is the allocation of resources and budget. Cloud migration projects require significant investment not just in technology but in training, change management, and possibly restructuring. Executive support guarantees that these projects have the financial backing and human resources necessary for successful implementation.
Facilitating cross-functional collaboration
Cloud migration extends across the boundaries of IT, affecting multiple parts of the organization. Executive buy-in fosters a culture of cross-functional collaboration, encouraging teams from IT, operations, finance, and more to work together towards a common goal. This collaboration is crucial for addressing the complex challenges that arise during cloud migration.
Driving cultural change
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of cloud migration is the cultural shift it demands. Moving to the cloud requires changes in how teams operate, how decisions are made, and how risks are managed. Executive leaders play a critical role in championing this shift, modeling the adaptability and forward-thinking mindset needed to thrive in a cloud-first environment.
For cloud migration to be truly successful, it requires more than just executive buy-in; it necessitates a broad consensus and active participation from both business and technical leaders who play critical roles in translating strategic visions into operational realities and ensuring that cloud migration efforts align with both business objectives and technical capabilities.
Business and technical stakeholders: The key to sustained momentum
Yes, cloud migration is a team sport. Business leaders possess insights into market trends, customer needs, and competitive dynamics, while technical leaders have the expertise in IT infrastructure, data management, and security protocols.
Engaging both sets of stakeholders helps bridge the gap between business goals and technical execution, ensuring that the cloud migration strategy is robust, realistic, and aligned with organizational objectives.
Creating a collaborative environment where business and technical leaders can openly discuss, debate, and align on the cloud migration strategy is essential.
This can be facilitated through regular cross-functional meetings, joint workshops, and shared platforms for project management and communication. Such initiatives encourage mutual understanding, foster a shared sense of ownership over the migration process, and leverage a diversity of perspectives to solve complex challenges.
Examples of effective stakeholder engagement
- Co-development projects: Some organizations have successfully engaged business and technical leaders by initiating co-development projects focused on creating new cloud-based solutions. These projects serve as a testing ground for collaboration, allowing stakeholders to experience first-hand the benefits of cloud technology and develop a shared vision for its implementation.
- Joint training and certification programs: Implementing joint training programs for business and technical teams on cloud technologies and best practices can significantly enhance stakeholder engagement. Such initiatives not only build a common knowledge base but also demonstrate the organization’s commitment to supporting its teams through the transition.
- Stakeholder champions: Identifying and empowering ‘champion’ stakeholders from both the business and technical sides can accelerate cloud migration efforts. These champions can advocate for the migration within their teams, address concerns, and provide valuable feedback to the project leadership, acting as a bridge between the migration team and the wider organization.
Engaging business and technical stakeholders is not merely a step in the cloud migration process; it can shape the trajectory of the migration and its eventual success.
By fostering a collaborative culture, bridging the business-technical divide, and leveraging data intelligence, organizations can ensure that their cloud migration efforts are well-supported, strategically aligned, and capable of delivering on the promise of digital transformation.
A transformation, not just a migration
In our cloud-first era, your data cloud migration isn’t just a technical endeavor. It’s a catalyst for efficiency and innovation. And it starts with getting organizational buy-in.
Are you prepared for your data cloud migration? Are you ready to evaluate your approach, secure executive support and harness the power of trusted data?
Download our insightful ebook, “Four Steps to Supercharge Your Data Cloud Migration with Data Intelligence.”
*Source: Gartner, ‘Gartner Says Cloud Will Be the Centerpiece of New Digital Experiences’
