3 steps to lift the cloud

1. Expect major changes to the way you do business.

In the traditional own-your-own approach, information technology executives were at the controls of the infrastructure that provided services to users. That is no longer the case when the services come through the cloud.

That means a switch in focus to managing the relationship with cloud computing providers, along with developing expertise in negotiating things such as service level agreements and organization- level agreements. Those agreements are important to set standards for the quality of service you can expect.

2. Reassess your future development plans in light of cloud options.

If you had no existing infrastructure, the move to cloud computing would be easy. But many government organizations have older systems and are implementing enterprise architectures.

You’ll need to carefully choose which of your organization’s processes to transition first and make sure each step harmonizes with your existing IT road map.

3. Anticipate resistance, particularly from technology experts.

Users have spent most of their careers learning how to deal with certain technologies, and the need for some of that expertise will disappear with the move to cloud computing. Users will probably be the least of your problems as long as they continue receiving the same IT support and services as before.