Definition of Cloud Strategy - Gartner Information Technology Glossary (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of cloud strategy? ›

A cloud strategy is a concise point of view on the role of cloud within the organization. It is a living document, designed to bridge between a high-level corporate strategy and a cloud implementation/adoption/migration plan. A cloud strategy is different from a cloud adoption or migration plan.

Gartner defines public cloud computing as a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided as a service to external customers using Internet technologies—i.e., public cloud computing uses cloud computing technologies to support customers that are external to the provider's ...

Cloud-first strategy is an approach to cloud computing that involves the adoption of cloud technologies for all new applications, platforms and infrastructure. It is a strategy that prioritizes cloud computing services over legacy IT systems.

When setting a cloud strategy, enterprise architects and I&O leaders must assess cloud-related risks for the following five types of risk: agility risk; availability risk; security risk; supplier risk; compliance risk. The possible risks must be weighed against the potential benefits in a balanced and compliant manner.

A cloud strategy example — Netflix took almost seven years to transform its applications and adopt the microservices architecture to move to Amazon Web Services. The reconfigured application structure maximized service availability and reduced IT costs as opposed to on-premise management of resources.

There are also three main types of cloud computing services: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Choosing a cloud type or cloud service is a unique decision.

The NIST Cloud Computing Definition provides three possible cloud services categories (called service models): Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

The main reasons why cloud computing is important for business is that it allows organizations to scale, maintain flexibility, and focus their efforts on business operations – not managing complex IT infrastructure. One of the best ways to optimize cloud computing for your business is by working with a cloud partner.

For the fifth consecutive year, Gartner® has named Google a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services.

Accenture Cloud First helps you navigate complexity, from landing zones in the cloud continuum to regulating data sovereignty. We work with you to determine the right cloud strategy, operating model, roadmap, and ecosystem partners.

How do you approach a cloud strategy? ›

How does a cloud-first strategy differ from other approaches to cloud? it enables an organization to completely move to the cloud without infrastructure or support requiremenThis. it keeps all the services performed by legacy systems while moving to the cloud in a staggered approach.

AWS and their partners use the framework set by Amazon to craft a sturdy foundation for your cloud solutions. The framework includes five pillars which include best practices, including: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization.

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. These services are divided into three main categories or types of cloud computing: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).

In Conclusion - Cloud Computing

The 4 types of cloud are public, private, hybrid, and community.

The NIST definition lists five essential characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity or expansion, and measured service.

There are four cloud deployment models: public, private, community, and hybrid. Each deployment model is defined according to where the infrastructure for the environment is located.

What are key success factors for a cloud first strategy? ›

History of Cloud Adoption

The Cloud First Policy was intended to accelerate the pace at which the Federal Government realized the value of cloud computing by requiring agencies to evaluate safe, secure, cloud computing options before making any new investments.

Dominating the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) market are three hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). They consume an impressive 34%, 21%, and 10% respectively of the global cloud infrastructure market (as at June 2022), which is worth a staggering $203 billion.

The public cloud model is the most widely used cloud service. This cloud type is a popular option for web applications, file sharing, and non-sensitive data storage. The service provider owns and operates all the hardware needed to run a public cloud.

Answer: Distinguishing Accenture's Cloud abilities from our rivals: Offering start-to-finish designs that consolidate headway, improvement, and industry tendency.

Well, there are 3 types of cloud computing: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Cloud-first strategies are operations strategies where teams move all or most of their infrastructure to cloud-computing platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. Instead of using physical resources like server clusters, they house resources—even mission-critical and secure resources—in the cloud.

Every cloud migration will be different, so each will need a clear migration strategy. The 6 Rs of cloud migration—re-host, re-platform, repurchase, retain, retire, and re-factor—can help you to determine clear paths for your migration.

The 4C's of Cloud Native security are Cloud, Clusters, Containers, and Code.

What are the key concepts in cloud computing? ›

Characteristics of cloud computing

One of the most attractive elements of cloud computing is the pooling of resources to deliver computing services at scale. Resources, such as storage, memory, processing, and network bandwidth, are pooled and assigned to multiple consumers based on demand.

The National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) lists five essential characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.

By outlining the cloud's architecture, development plans and governance model, cloud strategies help ensure effective performance of the infrastructure, workloads and applications hosted in the cloud. A cloud strategy also supports cloud management of the cloud by defining: Cost. Functionality.

The purpose of cloud strategy document is to guide the organization in the various stages of using or migrating to cloud services, while balancing the benefits for the organization and conducting proper risk management at the same time.

A cloud strategy is essential to guide your organization through the transition to the cloud by balancing expected benefits with guardrails to reduce risk exposure. Without a strategy, business groups and users will adopt solutions to increase productivity as they become available.

"The cloud" refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet, and the software and databases that run on those servers. Cloud servers are located in data centers all over the world.

Defining The Right Strategy

An effective cloud strategy calls for the careful assessment of the business, technology, financial and operational realities of today, and then compared with the vision that has been set for an organization's transformation.

Cost-efficiency

Adopting a cloud-first strategy rather than storing all of your data on physical server clusters can also save you money. Maintaining legacy hardware and software, as well as hosting and managing applications and servers, can be costly (in time, money, and other resources).

What are the four key reasons why cloud matters? ›

The difference between cloud storage and cloud computing is in the type of resource that's provided over the internet. Cloud computing is processing power made available over the cloud. Cloud storage is data storage capacity made available over the cloud.