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Cloud Strategy Workshop

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The Cloud Strategy Workshop is often one of the first steps in your journey to the Cloud. It represents the Strategy Phase of our Service Methodology. We start by understanding your business and your current processing environment. We provide insight to existing Cloud solutions and recommend specific applications or processes that would benefit from a move to the Cloud with a focus on demonstrating expected ROI.

Objectives

We conduct a half-day highly interactive on-site Cloud Business Strategy Workshop with the goal of obtaining better knowledge of how Cloud Computing may help your organization and determine if there is value in pursuing a Cloud-based solution. The objectives of this Workshop are:

  • Provide a high-level overview and education on the Cloud.
  • Understand the potential value of the Cloud-based solutions and their financial impact.
  • Identify areas requiring further analysis toward Cloud benefits.
  • Address concerns and apprehensions of moving to the Cloud.
  • Identify short-term plan to continue the discovery process and make final decision.

Pre-Workshop Items

Prior to the actual Workshop, Purposeful Clouds distributes a Pre-workshop Questionnaire. Your answers to this questionnaire assist us in the collection of important business and IT information.

We also hold a Kick-off Call to establish the roles and responsibilities, logistics, schedules and high-level goals for the workshop.

During the Workshop

The Workshop begins with a short educational presentation to level-set the group and provide topics for additional discussion. It serves to educate you on the Cloud Computing market to foster a more meaningful dialogue around your specific areas of opportunity that would best leverage the value of the Cloud. While the topics can vary based on your specific situation and needs, usually the topics of discussion include:

  • Strategic alignment of Cloud within your enterprise including a review of existing IT priorities and business strategies.
  • Review your current IT workloads, business services and Cloud readiness as it relates to the ideal future state.
  • Review your IT processes that relate to service acquisition and service measurements in support of business initiatives.
  • Discussion of how the Cloud could be leveraged today and a short list of opportunities that would provide the most value at this time.

Post-Workshop

After the Workshop, we analyze the information provided and prepare the deliverables. We may have a few specific questions which we will ask via a scheduled conference call.

Deliverables

Cloud Strategy and Roadmap Executive Summary

This brief executive-level report covers the scope, approach, high-level findings and recommendations identified during the Workshop for the benefit of your senior management.

Cloud Strategy and Roadmap Report

This report has detail from the Workshop including:

  • Summary of key findings and strategic approach to the Cloud as indicated during the Workshop.
  • A high-level assessment of the existing environment and the impact that moving to the Cloud will have on business and technical operations.
  • The top two or three Cloud-based opportunities that will provide the most value, with the least risk, in the shortest duration of time.
  • The areas of potential risks and benefits.
  • The impact of Cloud implementation on operations.
  • An initial high-level ROI and TCO outlook on the costs and benefits of moving to the Cloud.
  • The high-level requirements for a subsequent project and specific recommendations on the best approach that will highlight the benefits the Cloud could provide.
  • A strategic roadmap of potential opportunities, for short and long term implementation, of a Cloud strategy aligned to current business and IT initiatives.
  • A short-term plan to continue the discovery process through a final Cloud decision and implementation.

Summary Presentation

We deliver a summary presentation highlighting the findings of the Workshop in a 1-2 hour on-line meeting a few days after the Workshop.

Next Steps

An essential and usual next step after a Cloud Strategy Workshop is a Cloud Opportunity Assessment Service to do a deeper dive into the specific opportunities discovered in the Workshop. We may also recommend a Cloud Security and Compliance Assessment Service based on the level of data security requirements discovered in the Workshop. If appropriate, we may additionally recommend a training program tailored to your specific needs from the Purposeful Clouds Academy.

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