Cloudy Thinking and Digital Transformation

Source connect logo in blue and white color.

SourceConnecte! Marketplace With A Mission

By pwsadmin | March 6, 2020

Earlier this year, GC GlobalNet launched a new breed of B2B e-commerce sites. Curated by Kevin L. Jackson, SourceConnecte (with an “eâ€) went live with three strategic goals in mind: Efficiently leverage modern…

A man sitting on top of a building with a laptop.

Potential vs. Reality: Is Edge Computing Real?

By pwsadmin | January 19, 2020

Edge computing provides compute, storage, and networking resources close to devices generating traffic. Its benefits are based on an ability to provide new services capable of meeting stringent operational requirements…

An aerial view of a truck on a road near the ocean.

Enabling Digital Transformation

By pwsadmin | December 22, 2019

Digital transformation integrates technology into all areas of an organization’s business or mission. Its fundamental purpose is to create and deliver innovative and industry-changing products and services to a global…

A woman in red sitting on a chair with the word thinkshield.

The ThinkShield Story Part 1: The Challenge

By G C Network | October 24, 2019

  The cybersecurity challenge seems to be growing daily. Threats are becoming more sophisticated, and attacks are becoming more destructive while the corporate world’s response seems to resemble a deer…

A group of people walking up a set of stairs.

CIO dream team: Who’s in and why?

By G C Network | October 12, 2019

Today’s CIO navigates the twin challenges of enabling new business models and managing rapid technological change. Cloud computing strategies are now table stakes. CIOs must make complex decisions about using…

The ibm logo is seen on a black and blue computer.

Digital Transformation and the Mainframe

By G C Network | September 1, 2019

Digital transformation infuses digital technology into all areas of an organization’s business or mission. Its fundamental purpose is to create and deliver innovative and industry-changing digital products and services to…

A man standing in a server room with blue lights.

Composable Architecture Q&A. Are you ready?

By G C Network | August 26, 2019

Q: Is it time for my company to jump on the composable architecture bandwagon? A: Composable architectures are quickly becoming essential to the modern enterprise. Citing a recent Forrester study:…

A diagram showing a network of devices.

Increase Productivity by Reducing Technology Distraction: Lessons from Forrester Research

By G C Network | August 8, 2019

Workplace productivity is hurt every day by the very technology developed and purchased to improve it. Forrester announced this surprising conclusion in their latest “How To Wake Up From The Nightmare…

A series of pictures showing different types of products.

Unveiling the end-to-end capabilities for the networked society

By G C Network | June 10, 2019

An Interview with Henrik Basilier  By Kevin L. Jackson The telecom industry is rapidly moving towards a future in which networks must have the capabilities of delivering services with the…

A man is holding a credit card on a tablet.

AT&T Finance Solutions GM on Shrimping, Software, and CX

By G C Network | June 10, 2019

Helping clients address the trends and challenges presented by the Financial Services industry is the main focus for René Dufrene in his role as General Manager of Finance Solutions at…

(Originally posted on the Engility Corporation Blog)

 

There’s a lot to gain from cloud computing, but success requires a thoughtful and enterprise focused approach. Cloud computing decouples data and information from the infrastructure on which it lies. A process that is a LOT more involved than dragging some folders from your desktop to a shared drive.

Cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one.

As an organization moves from local information hosting to the cloud, one of the most important challenges is addressing cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one. Cloud computing isn’t a new technology. It’s a new way of consuming and provisioning information technology services. Adopting cloud computing means paralleling your mission processes, rethinking the economic models and abstracting your applications from the technology stack silos, which are currently the norm.

Interactions and dependencies between mission applications may be more important than the data or application itself.

One of the first lessons we learned supporting customers was that cloud migration shouldn’t be planned as an application-by-application movement to a different hosting environment. Cloud adoption is an application portfolio activity. Interactions and dependencies between mission applications may be more important than the data or application itself. That’s why upfront screening, analysis and digital infrastructure modeling are so critical. Boeing flew its Dreamliner aircraft designs on a computer before they started to build. Shouldn’t we (and our customers) test future IT infrastructure on a computer before moving to the cloud? 



That is the digital transformation approach we recommend to our customers, and we have now built an entire methodology around it called Cloud ASCEND. We formed an alliance with a few select partners: Cloud Security Alliance, Burstorm, Sequoia and IBM. These companies bring tools, lessons and optimizations available from the commercial sector (the technical operations viewpoint). We blend those offerings with the experience we’ve gained actually transitioning applications to the cloud and the lessons we’ve learned in the DoD and intelligence community (the secure mission delivery and performance viewpoint).

We knew the Cloud ASCEND digital transformation methodology couldn’t be some static, one-size-fits-all approach we trot out for every customer challenge. Our methodology constantly evolves because the world is always advancing. This is an important realization that all organizations need to internalize. Cloud computing enables rapid employment of new mission processes. It lets mission owners deploy capabilities that they didn’t know existed. Cloud ASCEND is agile because effectively delivering the mission requires an agile methodology. 

It lets mission owners deploy capabilities that they didn’t know existed.

Getting ready to migrate to the cloud? Consider a digital transformation strategy that delivers information mobility, operational scalability and mission agility. These are the real benefits that make the process worth the effort. Organizations can apply a digital transformation methodology to determine when and how to get started, allowing them to reduce risk, reduce complexity and migrate with confidence. Cloud ASCEND enables a sort of future proofing because digital transformation means thinking today and doing tomorrow.

 

Cloud Musings

 

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network