Navigate and act in the fast-changing market:

Your technology guide

to the cloud
Contents

Introduction 5

4xOps 11

Level 0 25

Level 1 38

Level 2 48

Level 3 56

Level 4 63

Summary 72

Sources 82

2
Foreword
Every business operates at some level of uncertainty and in a changing environment. The year 2020 has
extended this variability. Now, more than ever, the IT industry has the responsibility to enable the
world to maintain balance and adapt to changes that are both within and out of our control.

Right now, you have three assets to leverage:

• Organization – people with processes and resources
• Data – information about the past and insight into the future, gathered through the Organizational Wisdom
• Technology – to quickly and securely gain insights from this data, and facilitate competitive edge in real-time.

I realized that there is a typical pattern where organizations struggle: they manage all these
assets separately.

We’ve built our method upon the following assumptions:

• The organization has to leverage all its assets to thrive
• Technology is a must to stay one step ahead
• It has to advance in all technology lines to make an impact.

Our goal is to help you position yourself and guide you through that journey and answer the question:
„what is my next move to fulfill our mission?”

Here are Predica’s 10 years of experience put to your benefit, to help you ACT on change!

Tomasz Onyszko
Chief Technology Officer, Predica
Welcome

Want to make sure your business survives the storms ahead?

Then let’s talk about the cloud.

Why?

Because it’s your life raft!

4
Why do you need the cloud?
Haven’t jumped on the cloud train yet? Or still using the cloud just as a datacenter? You’re playing a risky game.

What’s the risk?

That someone will outpace you in the long run. And that someone will be your competitor.

Join the digital revolution!

Public cloud usage 89% Azure market share 11%

in 2017
96% in Q2 2017
20%
in 2020 in Q2 2020

40% predicted global increase in public cloud revenue

by 2022, according to Gartner

All sources cited in this publication are referenced on page 82

5
Adapt or perish The cloud never sleeps
Market and customer demands change rapidly. Your business operates in a highly dynamic and
You have to be able to respond to them fast, or competitive environment. You need a stable core
your competition will take the lead. to stay up to speed!

Flexibility can make all the Vendors take good care to make
difference between succeeding digital services reliable, with next
and falling behind. to no downtime.

Security is mandatory
Constant changes give perfect conditions for the bad guys to strike. Take advantage of technology to
set up next-level protection.

With a new ransomware story hitting the news practically every week,
fortifying your security is a no-brainer.

6
Winners bet on technology
You are missing out on opportunities while your
more technologically advanced competition takes all
the winnings.

Sure, going remote is a great way to begin your digital

transformation. But that’s just it – the beginning. What
about your infrastructure? Data? Security for all these new
environments?

Taking advantage of the cloud means having greater

resources. But it also means being able to go above and
beyond, as you discover new ways of addressing the needs
of your customers. Many companies are already there. Soon,
every business will be a tech business.

Don’t get left behind!

7
Greatness takes time – and iterations!
Do you remember how hard driving was in the beginning? But over time, it gradually got easier, until it became
second nature. It’s similar with the cloud. There are various aspects to take care of, processes to define, and
safeguards to implement, before it gets easier.

Successful cloud adoption requires a strategy and a solid foundation. You need to know where you want to
be at each stage, and what steps you need to take to get there. Monitoring your KPIs and maintaining standards
with the use of cloud governance will be your constant companions on this journey.

Misleading Honest Strategic

roadmap roadmap roadmap
Don’t worry – this
book will guide you
through the entire
Beginning End Beginning Beginning
process!

Paths informed by data-driven

Possible variants
decision-making

8
Original illustration by Pavel A. Samsonov
The 5 Levels Level 4

of your cloud Driven

journey Level 3
Savvy
Cloud solutions drive the business for
competitive advantage
IT is an integral part of the business and is used
to drive revenue

Level 2
Guided A cloud-first approach is taken to new services
IT actively supports operations in delivering business value
A multi-cloud strategy is in place, oriented towards generating new opportunities

Level 1
Aware Both cloud and on-premises services are in use, with the cloud being a priority
IT is the preferred business partner when new solutions are required
A comprehensive migration strategy is in place

Level 0
Resistant The cloud is used mainly as utility and infrastructure support
IT is more focused on business and operational requirements
Optimizing costs is the primary driver for projects

No cloud services present

IT department is separate to the rest of the organization and doesn’t drive business value
Projects are long-term, focused on infrastructure and maintenance

9
What do these 5 Levels
mean?

Level 0 is a bit like your first apartment away from

home. It’s not much, but it’s the first space you claim
for yourself, so it might be difficult to let go of.

But Level 4? That’s a million-dollar compound with two

swimming pools, a tennis court, and a mini golf course.
Plus a few holiday homes abroad.

Now, doesn’t THAT sound like a dream?

At this point, your organization is probably somewhere in

between.

Great – you’re already one step ahead!

10
4xOps: your four
companions
The IT landscape has changed.
It’s ”go digital or go home”.
You can no longer look at your cloud as just another IT resource, for a simple
reason that it is so much more than that. It has the potential to become an
integral part of your business operations, fueling and driving your initiatives
and, consequently, revenue.

11
The 4xOps model is built on new practices, which
emerged with the cloud to make your operations fit for
the digital age.
Before, organizations used to look at things like
infrastructure, data, code or business models as
separate entities. Everything was dealt with by
individual teams, in isolated silos. Then DevOps
came along. It allowed teams to combine all
these separate areas, and start treating them as
processes.
12
Through DevOps, everything becomes connected.
You can combine different aspects of your business
operations and see them in a wider context. You
can then start looking at DevSecOps (incorporating
security into all your processes), FinOps (advancing the
approach to budgeting cloud resources) and DataOps
(treating data as code for its better usage).
DevOps
Do you want to know what the number one problem You need multiple tools and processes to fully
in having IT as an active part of business is? It is not implement DevOps at your organization. But what’s
the cost of it. Nor is it a lack of skills. It is the lack of a key is that it’s more than a single tool or process. It is a
common language across the entire business value culture of working and delivering a product together as a
chain, which includes IT projects. single team, regardless of which department everyone’s
in.
The solution? Implementing DevOps as a practice.
Give your teams a common ground to collaborate
and observe as your deployments start improving
before your very eyes.

Companies with the highest level of DevOps integration achieve:

What difference
106x 7x 2,604x would that
make for your
faster lead time from code lower change failure rate shorter time to recovery
commit to deployment
business?

13
Many people, when talking about DevOps, refer to automation. And sure, it is a part of it, but it’s just a piece of the
truth. The key is to establish a way of working that is observable, measurable, and repeatable.

So, where to begin with DevOps?

1 Start with creating

2Establish a backlog which
3
Define your Continuous
4
Establish your Continuous
a repository of will facilitate the process Integration (CI) process for Delivery (CD) process for faster
requirements, so all your by listing priorities, putting the requirements deployments, so you can push
teams can work together. displaying progress, and into release. It needs the product to production
You can use e.g. Azure providing metrics on the to be automated and when needed, and easily
DevOps or GitHub for this state of development. repeatable. revert to a previous version if
purpose. necessary.

14
DevSecOps

Hardly a week goes by without a news story

about a company being hit with a cyber attack.
The worst part is, most of them could have been easily avoided.

Security in IT is not a gimmick. It is a way for organizations to mitigate risk. Not

threats to IT infrastructure. Not threats of IT systems breach. It is about reducing
business risk.

Among companies with the highest degree

of security integration:
Look after your
82% 61% 50% business!
feel they have improved are capable of on- can address critical
security posture demand deployment vulnerabilities in less
than a day

15
Security is EVERYONE’S business!
Remember it and repeat it as a mantra every time someone says it isn’t.

Where to start?

1 Start with education.

2
Keep your secrets safe.
Train your teams on code Secure confidential data like
security, good practices, client secrets, certificates or
and threat modeling. passwords, in a dedicated
service, and not a repository.
3
Secure your code with
dedicated tools which
will scan it for potential
security or quality issues.
4
Build security into your
CI/CD pipelines, and
automate it to catch
potential issues faster.

16
DataOps Why bother with data?

Data is the new oil! But is it just

87% 4%
of data science projects of organizations
any data? never make it to the
production stage
are able to take full
advantage of their data

How do you know if the information you are using is the

right kind of fuel for your organization?
Organizations use data for one of three reasons:

Making improvements to their business BUT

Developing new offering Data-driven businesses
Inventing business models. grow approx. How’s that for an

30%
incentive?
How advanced a company is in using its information
more than competition
depends on its maturity stage. But as a business advances
in its use of data, the maintenance of it becomes more
complicated. This is where Data Operations, or DataOps,
can help.

17
Data Operations is about innovating your value chain of data. It facilitates easy testing and validation of ideas,
and delivering them as a value to your organization. And as a bonus, it also makes your data projects fun and
interesting for teams working on it.

How to get started with DataOps?

1 Begin with a standardized data

2 Turn your data projects
3 Automate
4 Automate
framework for a single source into code and put them orchestration and deployments to
of truth when it comes to best in the cloud. testing to save time maintain consistency.
practices. and resources.

18
FinOps
The most significant change in the public cloud model compared to on-premises
operations is that you can assign a budget to every element of your solution at
the flip of a switch.

FinOps can help you manage your cloud spend more efficiently, so you get the
highest return while saving costs.

Automated lowering of service tier at weekends or other times when your

resources aren’t used as much could make a huge difference to your costs!

Why is cost control important?

Protect your
23% $ 17.6bn 7.3% investment –
be smart about
the average amount estimated waste predicted YoY
by which companies on unused cloud reduction in spending!
exceed their cloud resources in 2020 IT spending
budgets worldwide

19
 The 3 stages of FinOps

1Inform 2Optimize 3Operate

Companies establish transparency Once accountability for budgets is Organizations define, measure
in cost allocation and budget established, stakeholders can identify and observe key metrics related to
execution. opportunities for cost reduction within budgeting, tracking them against
their areas of responsibility. business objectives.

20
The cloud journey
methodology
Operating in the cloud is no longer about using
individual components to reach unrelated goals.

Your processes, data, infrastructure, and resources can all form and support
the core of your business. By adopting this methodology, and using the
appropriate tools, you can work your way toward the higher levels of your cloud
advancement.

In the end, by being in the cloud, you’ll be able to survive the highest rate
of change. With increasingly more competition out there, it really is ”adapt
or perish”.

21
Everything is connected!

Data
Code DevSecOps

Models FinOps
Tools

People

Infrastructure DataOps

DevOps

22
Your journey
starts now!

This is it. Time to get going.

23
What to expect?
We will share with you our proven 5-step methodology, called Predica impACT grid,
for guiding companies to success. Each step is divided into two key sections:

1. Impact – detailing how an organization operates as a whole at a given Level,

what it means for its potential, and where it can go from there
2. Areas – showing how different Levels of cloud adoption affect businesses
in every aspect, including:
a. Strategy – long-term plans and the approach to their execution
b. Architecture and governance – deployment and management of resources
c. Data – information gathering, its storage and usage
d. Operations and finance – allocating and executing budgets, monitoring costs
e. Security and risk – mechanisms and strategies in place to protect business
assets
f. Tools – services and methodologies in use on a daily basis.

Our first stop is a cloudless space. Let’s take a look around.

24
Level 0
Resistant Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

We all have to

Resistant
start somewhere!
Let’s see what you’re
leaving behind.

IN-HOUSE SERVICES ONLY

Benefits Risks Why should you move forward?

Keeping all data on premises Security vulnerabilities Easier collaboration

Lack of business insights Increased security

Missing out on business Offsetting infrastructure costs

opportunities

25
Overview
At a cloudless company, IT is most likely a small, separate unit. It focuses on providing user support
and resolving issues with infrastructure and operations. Instead of helping with revenue generation, it
is, essentially, a cost center.

This leads to a situation where people who do not drive the business are compensated at the expense of
people who do. It doesn’t mean you don’t need them. On the contrary – your tech people could help move
your company forward! Meanwhile, they spend their time maintaining on-premises workloads and developing
custom services like email or web hosting.

Even potential changes are insufficient to speed up an organization’s ability to adapt to a fast-changing market.
Traditional methods make it difficult to try new ideas quickly. With industry and customer demands changing
rapidly, this inflexibility poses a great risk to the business.

Game-changing advantage

64% 79% 41%

It looks like
a good club
of companies state that the cloud of businesses see 3 or of adopters experience to join!
helps their development teams work more benefits from using business growth
more closely together the cloud

26
1Strategy
A cloudless organization maintains the status quo.
The cloud is not being considered yet. All efforts
and investments are directed towards on-premises
resources rather than proofs of concept for cloud
services. There is no development of cloud-related
skills. As a result, there are no innovations or
significant improvements made to business
operations.
2 Architecture and governance
The architecture at Level 0 is focused on on-premises
workloads and integrations. IT teams are primarily
engaged in projects involving networking and storage
(utilities) development or configuration.
Because the projects are focused on internal
resources, the impact of architecture and changes on
total cost of ownership (TCO) and business value is
difficult to measure.
Additionally, services are most likely implemented
independently of each other, with no overarching
standard. As such, architecture and compliance
guidelines may be hard to verify and enforce. Each
aspect has to be managed and analyzed separately,
which takes time.
27
3 Data
Dealing with data is particularly difficult these days
when it comes to organizations functioning 100% on-
premises. It’s because all the information is stored
in multiple sources, in different, often incompatible
formats. Data is essentially siloed, with one-off
integrations, but without a shared source of truth.

As a result, any business insights take a long

time to prepare, and are subject to human
error. Consequently, making informed long-term
decisions is difficult if not impossible.

As each solution is implemented separately, there is no

centralized data model or operations. Managing and
analyzing data requires special skills, which makes it
difficult for most business users to get the information
they need for effective day-to-day work.

28
4 Operations and
process management
As you can probably see by now, operating in an
entirely cloudless environment in the modern
age is quite troublesome. Projects take a long
time, and are focused mostly on the on-site
infrastructure and its maintenance, rather than
business-generating solutions.
The support IT needs takes up a lot of resources.
Any changes and operational management
are driven by ticketing, limiting flexibility and
turnaround times. This puts the company at risk
of missing opportunities, as it cannot react
quickly to changing circumstances.
5 Financial management
Lengthy projects require lengthy budget cycles.
Typically, this means a budget allocated yearly. This
approach makes it difficult to make changes to a
project, even if it meant improvements or savings
in the long run.
Long-term projects also require an extensive
procurement process and a lengthy RFP cycle. But after
approval, it is difficult to track the costs as there is no
direct resource cost allocation to business operations.
Consequently, even services used for business
purposes are treated as an expense rather than an
investment.
29
6 Security and risk
It is practically impossible to run a business without the internet. As such, up-to-date protection and
best modern practices are key to a secure environment.

Security is not a gimmick!

28% 11.4m 3.86mln

of phishing attacks were
reported as successful
Go digital
$ $ and stay safe!
will be lost every minute to the average cost of a
cybercrime by 2021 cybersecurity breach
(in 2020)

30
7 Tools
A cloud-resistant organization most likely uses
Windows- or Linux-based systems. For application
access, on-premises virtualization platforms
such as VMWare or Hyper-V are used. Enterprise
database and data analytics tools are also held
on-premises.

In terms of process management, either no

specific methodology is used, or a waterfall
(linear) approach is taken. This can lead to
projects taking a long time to complete as
unforeseen delays may stall the work.

31
Where to begin?

Business productivity suites such as Office 365 or Google Apps are the easiest
way to get started with digital services, so taking this approach will help
you move forward. Here we can share some of the lessons learned during
implementing O365 for our clients.

10% of organizations are reported to not

The cloud can
use cloud at all. Why? help solve these
problems if you’re
They prefer to keep They’re worried They’re concerned willing to give it
data on-premises. about the costs. about migration and a chance!
its risks.

32
1Start by gathering feedback 2Choose real business cases
It’s always best to just talk. It works much better than
using tools such as surveys. People become more open
when they talk, especially to an external consultant. The
goal here is to discover how your people work and what
their daily problems are.
Based on the feedback you get, it’s good to identify real
cases for the pilot. Only after defining and prioritizing
the scenarios you should propose the technology
that will help with achieving your goals. Each of the
scenarios can be addressed with many services.
For example, do you need to reduce the time spend on
email management? Then you can look at custom inbox
configuration or additional internal communication tools.
Want to lower meeting costs? Use Exchange functionalities
for booking or introduce videoconferencing. Defining
scenarios will also help with a bunch of well-known but
painful end-user situations.
33
 3Don’t test everything
at once
When you ask your users what they want to test, you will
probably get an answer such as: “We don’t know what we
want because we don’t know what is possible”. Office 365
already gives you many services. That’s why you should
focus on just a few during the pilot and start with your
business cases first.
It’s hard to decide which plan to choose but more
importantly, it’s hard to get a budget for a project when
you can’t evaluate its usefulness. Prioritize and choose
wisely, limiting your tests to a maximum of 3-4 services.
34
4Support your pilot users and
communicate with them often
The worst scenario you may be up against is to enable
the technology and leave your users on their own.
Remember that not everything is intuitive for them,
and they will become demotivated very, very quickly.
The best pilots we have seen were the ones where a
dedicated person was constantly in contact with testers. On
the one hand, it gives you some early invaluable feedback,
on the other – testers know whom to contact when help is
needed.
5Don’t forget to go through
a technical assessment
It’s easier than ever before to deploy Office 365 at your
organization. The funny thing here is that apart from the
Office Pro Plus client, there is hardly anything else you can
deploy. All the technical work is usually connected with AD
or email system integration.
Remember to go through the technical assessment to
identify any blockers or problems you may have. There
are also many technical decisions to make. They will
help you with scoping your final project.
6Get some support
We have seen many clients trying to do the pilot by
themselves. It almost always ends up taking much longer
than expected with many questions left unanswered. Look
for an expert to support you during the process. This
person or company should have certain experience
with both technical (tips and tricks) and business
(adoption) parts of the service, to guide you through
the process.
35
Next steps

So, you want to get started with the cloud? Make sure you’re ready:

1. Grow your talents

No one knows your business like your employees. Give them the
opportunities to gain the necessary skills.

2. Define your KPIs

It’s not just about monetary savings - it might be about the time saved
on deployments, or service outages. Define what you want to achieve
and measure it.

3. Start small!
Don’t take your most precious cargo on the first trip. Think of a small
business problem you can solve with the cloud, and start there.

36
4. Evaluate, build, iterate
Not every service will be suitable for your
circumstances. Analyze the potential risks and
benefits, pick only the options that are relevant to
your business, and build from there.
5. Remember that cloud is a living thing
It is not an off-the-shelf product. There are multiple
services which work together to form a solution.
Prepare to deal with things like source control,
continuous integration and deployment.
6. Work with your business departments
Your IT is the best-suited business partner for your
organization. Work closely with them to learn their needs and
deliver the necessary solutions.
7. Know where you are headed
What do you want to achieve with the cloud? How will it
impact your core business? What is the long-term goal? If
you know why you’re doing it, you’ll have a better chance of
making the right choices.
37
 Level 1
Level 0 Aware Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

We’re venturing
Aware into the unknown...
It is calling your
name!
MOVING UP THE CLOUD RANKS

Benefits Risks Why should you move forward?

Simplified collaboration Inconsistency between Large-scale data analysis

environments

Improved identity management Security vulnerabilities Better cost management

Lower infrastructure costs Limited business insights More effective project

management

38
Overview
The main objective at this stage is optimizing IT operations, to make more of the available
resources. Cost savings are still a priority; however, the focus is gradually shifting to
include employee demands. Business tools such as Office 365 are being introduced to
simplify collaboration or enable remote working. You might consider cloud-based PoCs
(Proofs of Concept) for non-critical workloads, or move some of the infrastructure to an
IaaS model.

The cloud and on-premises resources are still being treated independently of each other.
As such, there is no common security or architecture approach. It is, essentially, a trial-
and-error mission to establish a new way of operations.

At this point, you can already start seeing the benefits of the cloud. You’re laying
the foundations for future cloud adoption and learning the necessary skills. Your
business will gradually begin to operate faster and optimize costs.

If you want to go far - go cloud

67% 95% 53% Imagine the
of companies state of Fortune 500 of organizations state possibilities.
that the cloud is key to companies use they operate more
maintaining competitive Azure services efficiently thanks to
edge the cloud

39
1 Strategy
A cloud-aware organization is not yet cloud-focused. Cloud
services are being treated as secondary resources. As such,
there is no common adoption strategy for new workloads.
The entire approach is focused on IT and infrastructure, with
the aim to drive down costs.

At this stage, saving money and resources might be the

right approach for you. However, it is a good idea to start
working on some standards for service implementation,
to avoid having inconsistency issues later.

40
2
Architecture and governance
As the new path is being forged, the main plan is yet to
emerge. There is no cloud governance model yet. An initial
architecture for on-premises and cloud workloads has been
designed, but deployments are project-based and made on an
ad-hoc basis. There is no standardized approach to them, and
there is no consistency among resources either.

Any adjustments are made as per individual project

requirements. Consequently, there is no single way or
systemic approach to managing new resources. It can
lead to some vulnerabilities in the systems. Essentially,
this is the make-or-break point for your cloud adoption.

41
3 Data
Digital solutions provide invaluable support when it comes
to analyzing information and providing business insights.
Introducing the cloud allows the organization to take a step
towards a better data strategy.

Although most of the company data is siloed and kept mostly

on-premises, the first data warehouses are being introduced,
with emerging data models. Those in turn are being kept in the
cloud, which is still largely used as commodity storage.

Data analytics tools are being introduced to help

business users get the information they need. Reports
include largely structured, internal data, which doesn’t
yet take into account external factors that may affect
the market. However, it is already easier to get deeper
business insights and start defining new goals based on
information that is more accurate than before.

42
4 Operations and
process management
New solutions take time to get used to. Until then, the cloud
is being treated largely as another IT resource. From the
financial point of view, it is the cost center for implemented
utility services and infrastructure.

The approach to cloud management and operations is

copied from the traditional ways of running an on-premises
environment, with no consideration yet as to what may need
to be approached differently. As such, there are no KPIs
centered around optimizing and automating them.

Consequently, it is difficult if not impossible to assess the

impact of the cloud. That’s why it’s a great time for setting
measurable outcomes. You can already take advantage of
cloud-based data analytics solutions which can help you
gain the necessary insights.

43
5 Financial management
The arrival of the cloud does not change much
in terms of the approach to cost. There is still a
traditional, lengthy procurement process with a long
cycle of vendor and product selection. Budgets are
still allocated for the long term per project. Costs are
allocated and managed in bulk, e.g. in per license or
per-server mode.

It’s not the optimal way of managing finances for

cloud resources, but depending on your needs and
usage, it might be sufficient at this point. However,
taking a long time to procure services limits the
speed with which you can begin new initiatives.

44
6 Security and risk
In terms of security, the arrival of the cloud means in This is a significant improvement for your users who now
large part an extension of the existing security model to should be able to easily access the necessary resources
the new perimeter, as it is still largely network-focused. without having to be physically present in the office. By
introducing the single sign-on (SSO) functionality, you
Although regulations are taken into account when also remove the need for multiple sets of credentials for
dealing with data privacy and security, there is different services.
usually no policy and no risk assessment for cloud
resources at first. However, the availability of
new resources means that identity-based security
solutions, usually in a SaaS model, are being
introduced.

45
7 Tools
A cloud-aware company starts to take advantage
of the variety of business services. The most
common are productivity suites like Office 365
or Google Apps, data analytics tools like Excel
or Power BI Desktop, or 3rd party marketing or
business tools.

Part of the infrastructure is moved to an IaaS

model in Azure, AWS, GCP, or another cloud.
This includes virtual machines, storage, or
backup services. It offsets some of the cost of
maintenance, and protects your resources from
loss or damage.

New approaches to process management are

being tested, such as Scrum or Kanban, to
make collaboration easier and deliver results
faster.

46
Next steps
You’ve taken the first step on your cloud journey.
Congratulations! Now you can start working out the
details:
1. Understand your value offering
Before you start using the cloud, you need to know what
your company offers to its users – both employees and
customers. Once you know what you can deliver in the
context of the current market, you can start thinking
about how you’ll do it.
2. Define and measure your goals
Find out what it is you want to accomplish – is it about
shorter time to market? Simplified compliance? Scalability?
Pick your reasons to adopt and use the cloud. Make sure
to gather opinions from different places across your value
creation chain.
3. Don’t worry about vendor lock-in
It doesn’t have to be an issue! In fact, sticking with
one provider might make it much easier to manage
the new investment – you won’t need multiple
skillsets, billing arrangements, geographic locations,
etc. Think about what will help you deliver the most
value to your users.
4. Learn, experiment, evaluate
It’s not one-size-fits-all with the cloud. And you
certainly don’t need to base your strategy on what’s
the latest and greatest in technology. Think of the
services that can help you fulfill your objectives,
experiment with them, and measure the outcome. If
it works – great! If not – move on to the next thing.
47
 Level 2
Level 0 Level 1 Guided Level 3 Level 4

You’ve leveled up!

Guided Keep going -

the goal
is on the horizon!
ADVANCING IN CLOUD USE

Benefits Risks Why should you move forward?

Measurable business impact Gaps in resource standardization Data-driven decision-making

Fast idea implementation No proactive threat mitigation New ways of generating value

Streamlined procurement and Improved consistency and

budgeting compliance

48
Overview
Your direction is set. You are now able to transform the way you work and deliver value. This next stage will
require focus: you’ll need to speed up the development of skills and operations and build a suitable model to
deliver on cloud services.

Many organizations take on a hybrid approach, using both public cloud and on-premises services, with public cloud
having priority. Migrating services from on-premises is now accounted for in the strategy. Security is identity-driven,
allowing employees to seamlessly access the new cloud-based tools in their daily work.

This newly gained competence in using the cloud enables your teams to deliver projects reliably and predictably.
You can iterate quickly, validate business ideas, and scale them if they work. IT is the preferred business partner
for developing the necessary products. Modern workplace solutions, like a cloud-based intranet, allowed your
organization to establish new, more efficient ways of collaboration. Cloud-based tools also allow your company to
measure the business impact of their adoption.

Expanding the playing field

67% 82% 52% Give yourself

of companies add new
business roles to manage
their environments
of organizations with
company-wide analytics
capabilities surpassed their
business goals
more options.
of cloud adopters stated
that it helped them improve
security

49
1 Strategy 2 Architecture and governance
The tutorial is over. Now, it is time to play the game
A more elaborate IT environment requires
for real. A defined migration strategy is a must at
a methodical approach. In practice, this
this stage. As you decide to move forward with cloud
means more standardization and less ad-hoc
adoption, the plan becomes aligned with business
deployments. This starts with preparing a
directions.
landing zone, or an initial environment that has
a set of governing standards.
The scope of projects and investments widens beyond
infrastructure to include areas generating business value.
Over time, this model is scaled as a service to other
As such, you need to define requirements for service
resources. This allows introducing the architecture
measurement and observability. The cloud is now seen
guidelines for new services. You also start to
as the vehicle for driving value, but it is also becoming
focus on standardizing resource deployment and
accountable.
compliance. Consequently, adopting and using new
services gradually becomes easier.

50
3 Data
By using new cloud services, you can start making a better
use of the valuable resource you had all along – data. This
starts with modernized data warehouses hosted in the cloud.
Their scalability allows you to increase data ingestion, which is
particularly useful as the volume of semi-structured data (like
logs or XML) starts to grow.

New sources of information, as well as available functionalities,

allow the business to make better use of its resources. Self-
service analytics tools are widely adopted, allowing employees
to make better-informed decisions daily, based on more
accurate insights.

Now you can also start new data-driven initiatives aimed

at identifying or developing new business opportunities.
At this point, you are able to use the cloud to actively
generate a return on your investment.

51
4 Operations and
process management
As you begin to standardize your environment,
there is increasingly more order to your activities.
You can start looking at simplifying them. Ways
of automating deployments and operations are
starting to appear on a per-project basis. Multiple
teams adopt Agile delivery models, focusing on
continuous improvement rather than rigid long-
term engagements. The results of their actions
can also be measured with clearly defined KPIs.
This approach allows higher flexibility. More
importantly, by reducing manual work and
the risk of human error, it also results in
better quality products being delivered.
52
5 Financial management
At this point the old ways of managing costs no
longer work, so you become more adept at cloud-
oriented financial strategies. License- or user-based
models are dropped in favor of usage-based pricing.
An initial cloud cost allocation model is also in place,
based on the organization’s cost centers.
Procurement is no longer a complex, lengthy
process but is adjusted to the needs and realities
of purchasing cloud services. You are also able
to allocate project-based budgets according to
predicted cloud costs.
At this Level, your cloud investment is becoming
increasingly trackable and measurable. You no longer
have to rely on guesswork, but can get more accurate
insights into your services, and make informed
decisions on where to go next.
6 Security and risk
Now that you’re playing in a bigger league, you The advanced approach to security keeps resources
need to step up your security game. And you do! protected without compromising productivity or ease
You start using cloud security services, mostly of access for authorized users. Working with external
for infrastructure and network services. Security partners or clients is also easier, as they can be assigned
measures are tailored to the services you have, access to specific resources.
as per your risk models. Resources are protected
with an identity-driven security model, allowing
seamless authorization and safe access from
anywhere.

53
7
Tools
Now that digital solutions guide your business, they are present in every area of operation. You rely less
on lengthy development of custom solutions and instead look towards ready-made services which you
can use as building blocks for what you need.

Here are some examples of what you can use in specific areas:

Security and identity – Azure AD, Intune, Microsoft 365 suite

Data – Power BI Pro, Azure SQL, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Lake, Master Data Services
PaaS-based business apps.

To be able to run and easily scale all these services a high availability, redundant cloud-based architecture is
necessary.

Process management is much more efficient at this stage, with some DevOps practices beginning to emerge. You
may use tools or services like Azure DevOps or Terraform to keep projects running smoothly. Scrum and Kanban
methodologies are widely used to manage workloads as part of LeSS, AgilePM, DAD, or similar Agile Project Practice.
These new approaches allow you to quickly react to unforeseen changes. It is easier to monitor project progress
and make adjustments if needed. Additionally, with automation becoming part of your deployments, products are
delivered faster, with less errors.

54
Next steps
Now you can take one last look behind you and commit to
the direction in which you’re going. The good news is, you’re
now well equipped to be able to make an informed decision.
Here are some tips to help you move forward:
1. Research new opportunities
Data can show directions for new business areas. The
information is there now, so there’s no point in waiting for a
month to see it. Invest in data analytics and data operations
to get the necessary insights when you need them.
2. Focus your IT projects on business
generation
You need to learn how to implement and verify ideas - and in
today’s market, you need to learn it fast. Use the cloud to run
quick trial projects - now you can build a simple PoC product
from scratch in hours, not days.
3. Experiment with new business ideas
Lengthy initiatives with an uncertain outcome are no
longer an option. What you need is a quick way to try
out a portfolio of projects. DevOps culture is a way to
enable it. You can develop the MVPs (Minimum Viable
Products) fast, check data to evaluate results, then
move on to the next iteration.
4. Adjust your budgeting procedures
You need to answer market demands quickly, and
yearly budgeting and procurement cycles will limit
your ability to do that. What could you achieve if your
budget was set every 3 months now instead of once a
year?
55
 Level 3
Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Savvy Level 4

The trophy

Savvy is almost yours.

Time for the final
boss fight!
CLOUD IS THE FIRST CHOICE

Benefits Risks Why should you move forward?

IT is a value generation center Not utilizing the full potential of Reduced risk
your services

Automated checks and measures Better ROI

Taking advantage of deeper Gaining competitive

insights from structured data advantage

56
Overview
Remember when IT was a cost center, eating up budgets just to keep it going? Those days are long gone! Now your
IT department is a business partner. They help you evaluate your business ideas and respond quickly to changing
market conditions with the support of technology and data insights.

There is no more doubt as to which services to choose. The company strategy is clear – it’s cloud all the way.
As such, you choose cloud-native workloads and services when in need of a new solution, and keep moving
any remaining on-premises services to the cloud. At this point, you’re a bit more comfortable with cloud-
specific processes we talked about earlier – DevOps, DevSecOps and DataOps.

This transformation has a considerable impact on your business. Now you can bring new ideas to life quickly, and
the business risk is low as all services are predictable, measurable, and secure. Instead of continually investing in IT
and getting little back, you now have a business partner and a value generation center.

By 2025...

90% 80% 41bn+ Get ready for

the future.
of manual IT and data management of B2B sales process will IoT devices will be
tasks will be automated happen online in use

57
1 Strategy
You have reached the point where you no
longer need to look back. Technology helps
you drive business value, and this is what you
can orient your strategy towards. You can
make data-driven decisions, put them into
practice with DevOps, and measure the results.
Your IT is no longer a single team working in
isolation. The silos are broken down and teams
are interdisciplinary, with people grouped by
problems to resolve rather than by departments.
2
Architecture and governance
You’ve reached such heights that managing your IT
services is a bit like flying a plane – you switch on
the autopilot and just check in now and then. This
is what having a cloud governance model feels like.
You have common architecture blueprints which
include automated checks and measures at
deployment. This way you can ensure that all new
resources are compliant and consistent with your
standards across the entire organization.

The cloud-savvy strategy uses the multi-cloud

approach, with different (private and/or public)
services being used. Whatever you choose, new
solutions are always built using cloud-native
services. Any remaining on-premises applications
are scheduled for migration, replacement, or
retirement. The cloud is officially king!

58
3 Data
As you let automation take the controls, you can sit back and
enjoy the view. And with your structured data approach, you
have brand new insights into your business. Your organization
has a data governance model in place with defined and
managed data flows. All services related to this domain are
cloud-native.

The variety of the data you use increases, with most of it being
structured or semi-structured. However, new types of data,
such as unstructured (images, video, audio) or streaming (IoT
devices, sensors) begin to appear, providing new perspectives
on business and/or customer problems.

Users across the organization can take advantage of

defined data models with self-service analytics. Everyone
can easily access the information they need in their daily
work. Additionally, you begin to use Machine Learning
which enables creating business value and gaining
strategic insights with features like predictive analytics.

59
4 Operations and 5 Financial management
process management
Want to try out something new? No As your projects become more dynamic, so does your
problem! Need to change the course of a budgeting. Now you can operate in shorter (quarterly)
project? Perfectly fine! With continuous cycles, relevant to your objectives.
and Agile delivery models, you can easily
adapt to new requirements, whatever You’re starting to introduce Financial Operations
they are, and whenever they appear. practices as the cost is now being considered as a factor
in architecture and solution design. Additionally, you use
With DevOps-based integration and your governance practices (policies, controls) to manage
deployment, delivery and operations go resource allocation.
smoothly. Now the focus is on observability,
measurement, and automation. Instead
of fixing endless problems and putting
out fires, you can turn your attention to
evaluating results.

60
6 Security and risk
Because so many aspects of your operations run on autopilot, your security approach needs to be highly
sophisticated. At this point, you should have a zero-trust security model adopted throughout the business, to
protect it across the board.

You also leverage your cloud resources to protect your organization. Digital services detect and mitigate risk within your
resources, both on-premises and in the cloud. The latest technology is in use for minimizing external threats.

7 Tools
At the cloud-savvy stage, you get more involved with more advanced cloud technologies, leveraging their
potential to drive business outcomes. Now that DevOps is the primary mode of operation (not just for technical
teams), workloads are assigned through services like Azure DevOps and GitHub. Projects are managed according
to SAFe essentials or another scaled-out Agile methodology. Service deployments are handled by cloud-based
container orchestration services. You also start using new cloud services:

Data: Power BI Premium, Data Lake, Event Hub, Machine Learning, Databricks, Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse
Analytics
Serverless applications: EventHub, Azure Functions, API Management, Cosmos DB
Security: Azure Security Center, Azure Sentinel, Cloud App Security, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Arc.

61
Next steps
At this point, things are starting to get comfortable. Now
you know your services, you can start making more of
them:
1. Align the cloud with your strategy
You’re now in a good position to see what works for your
organization, and what doesn’t. Choose each service
according to what it can bring in terms of helping you
achieve your business objectives, and measure its impact.
2. Use the power of data
Give your people access to the insights they need.
They need to know how their actions impact business
performance. It will be easier to find new ideas and
opportunities if all employees can get the necessary
insights when they need it, and not just at a monthly or
quarterly update.
62
3. Strengthen your security posture
Step up your security with advanced analytics and
protection. Use governance strategies to automate
management of each service and every identity
throughout their lifecycles. Establish (or outsource)
a Security Operations Center to proactively hunt and
mitigate threats to your environment.
4. Embrace automation
There are many time-consuming processes which
you can use your cloud for - from simpler ones, like
vacation approvals, to more elaborate ones, like
generating sales forecasts. Identify the tasks which
still take up time unnecessarily, and automate them,
so that your people have more time to focus on your
customers.
 Level 4
Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Driven
Congratulations -

Driven you are the cloud

champion! How’s the
view from the top?

THRIVING IN THE CLOUD

Benefits Risks Why should you move forward?

Technology as a business driver Resting on laurels Reduced risks

Developing new services or Maximized ROI

ways of delivery

Maintaining competitive
advantage

63
Overview
As a cloud-based business, you’re well ahead of your competition. With the latest technologies, constantly
developed and updated, you have a considerable advantage. You’re also ready for future challenges.

Technology is no longer just support for your operations, but it is a proactive business driver, allowing you to offer
new services or new ways of delivering value to your customers. Cloud services now drive your revenue in an
observable and measurable way. You can also move beyond the cloud and closer to your customer, where mobile
and IoT solutions help you deliver more value.

With the use of 4xOps, your organization is transformed. All objectives are being set based on data, and results
can be easily quantified and evaluated.

The costs of operating your IT services are optimized, adapting to the current business circumstances. This is largely
because there’s very little need for maintenance. As a result, you can focus on core business and revenue generation.

Get the edge over the competition

17% 41% 87% Gain an
advantage in
of organizations above of cloud-oriented businesses of cloud adopters are able your space.
10,000 employees are see an improvement in to accelerate their business
100% cloud-based customer satisfaction

64
1
Strategy
Digital services are now at the core of all your
services, both new and existing. You have defined
cloud-native architecture blueprints, with templates
for shared resources. All IT resources have assigned
KPIs which relate to business objectives.

65
2Architecture and governance
Your cloud services are managed using a governance process executed across the organization.
Deployments are automated, as is service and data configuration to ensure compliance. A comprehensive
strategy also allows you to automate risk detection and mitigation.

66
3 Data
With a variety of available services, the organization can now
make use of all its data – structured, semi- and unstructured,
and streaming. Data flow operations, testing, and model
maintenance are governed by the DataOps practices.

The cloud data analytics stack is enriched with Machine

Learning and common data models. Business users can make
use of insights generated by these solutions using self-service
data analytics services.

You’re no longer stuck with a simple view of the past, but

can perform what-if analyses and gather predictions for
what might happen next. Making decisions is easier when
you can see the probable outcomes right in front of you.

67
4 Operations and
process management
Now that your cloud environment practically runs itself (well, almost), IT operations are focused on
ensuring service availability and outage prevention rather than routine maintenance. Any improvements
are driven by data generated by your services. Business operations can request new cloud solutions or
operations via an internal service catalog.

68
5 Financial management
The flexibility that comes with using cloud
services also translates to your approach to
budgeting. The cycles are now much shorter,
with automated cost allocation and control.

You’re also able to take advantage of the

demand-to-cost approach, with adaptive
scalability of services across the organization, to
optimize costs.

69
6 Security and risk
Security is no longer an afterthought. It is
incorporated into the service lifecycle and fully
tied in with integration and deployment pipelines.
This protects your solutions from the beginning.

Compliance rules are enforced to apply controls

and measurements on resources, which mitigates
business risk. Cloud services automate threat
monitoring and mitigation for common risks.
Additionally, advanced threat analytics allow for
proactive hunting, investigation, and mitigation of
larger threats.

70
Next steps

There isn’t much that can surprise you at this

stage. Sure, the threats and challenges are still
out there, and always will be. But you’re better
prepared than most for dealing with them. At
this point, other organizations look to you for
examples of a successful response.

But what is most exciting is the world of

possibilities that is now open to you – and by
extension, to your customers. You no longer
offer them a single product or a service, but
much more beyond that. Your offering can make
people’s lives easier, or contribute to building
a better world. And here’s the surprise – this is
where your journey REALLY begins.

71
A 5-level journey
Cloud adoption is a process. You don’t just decide one day that you’ll move your organization to the cloud, and get
everything done the next. It will take time and several iterations. But now you can see how you can structure your
migration and which actions to take at every stage.

This was quite a lot to take in, so let’s do a brief recap of each Level, so you can identify more easily where
your company might be and where to go next.

Level 4
Driven

Level 3
Savvy

Level 2
Guided

Level 1
Aware

Level 0
Resistant

72
 Level 0 - Resistant
A company’s IT systems are based 100% on-premises. There is no cloud in use at all, and no intention
of adopting any services in the future. The IT department is focused on developing and maintaining
internal systems.

This can get difficult at a larger scale, as fast changes to the market or the economy will mean that the business
will not be able to respond quickly enough. In a technology-driven reality, it also means that the organization
misses out on revenue-generating opportunities.

Level 1 - Aware
Some cloud-based services are in use, mostly to offload some of the on-premises infrastructure and for
utility support. This includes business productivity services like email or file-sharing spaces.

This stage allows for some flexibility in terms of maintaining business continuity as access to resources is no
longer strictly on-premises. Additionally, reducing infrastructure maintenance costs allows for some savings,
which is the main driver of the process at this point.

73
 Level 2 - Guided
The use of the cloud is steadily growing and gaining preference when it comes to building new solutions.
It is also a point of closer evaluation, as results are becoming measurable. What’s more, the cloud is
gaining a bigger role in protecting resources, both from a security and service reliability points of view.

With a new set of skills, it is possible to try out new services and ideas more quickly. Those that are successful
can be relatively easily scaled as required. All employees can benefit from the new tools and use them to
simplify their daily work.

Level 3 - Savvy
This stage represents a cloud-first approach. IT is the main support for generating revenue, by providing
both relevant technology and deeper insights. Cloud-based practices for operating new services
(DevOps, DevSecOps, DataOps) start to appear.

This proficiency in cloud operations allows an organization to adapt quickly and test new ideas efficiently with
relatively low risks. IT services are predictable, measurable, and secure. The competitive advantage the cloud
brings is increasingly more significant.

74
 Level 4 - Driven
Technology now proactively drives the business. It allows the
organization to build innovative services or provide new ways of
enhancing the offering for customers. All decisions are based on
data, limiting business risk for new initiatives.

A cloud-driven company is fully transformed to keep digital

services at its core. As routine tasks are taken care of by
technology, employees can focus on core business. New
ideas powered by technology allow the company to maintain
a strong competitive edge regardless of market conditions.

75
The four Ops
Now that you see how we approach cloud adoption, our 4xOps concept should also be a bit clearer. As
you can see, this isn’t a one-time action either – it is a process that develops as you progress on your
journey. With this in mind, let us review its elements, informed now by the context of cloud adoption.

Data

Code DevSecOps

Models FinOps

Infrastructure DataOps

DevOps

76
DevOps
The essence of DevOps is helping your team
find a common ground. There’s no one way
to do this – it’s why there’s no single element
that will help you implement this practice.
Instead, it is a combination of approaches,
philosophies and tools based on four key
principles: collaboration, affinity, tools and
scaling.
Try a new tool like Azure DevOps, utilize the
backlog for storing requirements, and define a
pipeline for development. Then, iterate – improve
or add something new every time.
DevSecOps
The standard approach to security is to implement
various tools to protect the resources from the
outside. But what’s equally important is to keep
them safe on the inside. This is the essence of
DevSecOps – integrating security into every aspect
of operations. There is no single agent responsible
for it – it is everybody’s business!
Introduce policies and share best practices with all your
employees, so that everyone can do what they can to
prevent incidents. Consider also the security aspects of
your product. Simple, automated practices can bring
significant results, even at early levels.
77
DataOps
Data can be very valuable in defining new
business directions or finding opportunities for
improvement. But first, it needs to be efficiently
analyzed. DataOps is a practice that can help to
simplify and standardize this process.
It all starts with building a shared repository of
information and practices in your organization
around data engineering. Then, you need to turn
your data into code. After that, introduce automatic
testing and deployment for data projects. Before
you know it, you’ll start getting deeper business
insights from your data on a daily basis.
78
FinOps
Managing the cost is always a big concern with cloud
adoption. It makes sense – it is an investment after
all. However, the “standard” approach to finances
will no longer help you optimize costs.
In the beginning, the key is to be pragmatic. Focus on
the most important services first, as they will have the
biggest impact. The next stage is to take a business-
driven approach – as you monitor your resources and
their usage, you can make informed decisions on how to
allocate budgets. Eventually, you will be able to track the
costs down to an individual action and adjust accordingly.
What happens now?

1Accelerate 2Change 3Thrive

Introduce cloud services Iterate faster on new Keep up with changing
to your organization and ideas and transform client expectations and
start taking advantage your business with new survive in the highly
of essential services, to capabilities. competitive market with
increase your operational your new capacity to adapt
capacity. fast!

Elevate your business!

Contact us to find out how

79
Into the cloud!

1Click here 2Find out 3Plan your

to book your which level next move!
assessment you’re at

Looking for more inspiration?

Read the success stories!

80
Final remarks
Thriving in a fast, uncertain and demanding environment is a challenging feat for an organization.
To be antifragile and take every shock as an opportunity, you need to have the ability
to experiment.

As a CEO you have to be able to experiment quickly, to find new sources of value for your
business. You have to be sure you allocate your resources properly.

As a CIO you have to make sure that the technology you use enables those experiments, and fuels
it with data.

As a CISO you have to shield your organization from the inherent risks associated with going
digital.

Transformation always starts from within. Placing technology at the core of your
business will be like having a star powering a planetary system. Its energy will give you
the boost you need to adapt.

Our team created the impACT grid to help you orient yourself as to where and how to ACT next.

Stop seeing IT just as a cost center.

Accelerate. Change. Thrive!

Andrzej Lipka
Chief Executive Officer, Predica
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info@predicagroup.com
predicagroup.com

1st ed., November 2020

All information contained in this publication, while published in good faith, does not constitute business or legal advice. Any actions taken in direct response to this
content are at reader’s own risk. Neither Predica Consulting Services sp. z o.o. sp.k. nor any parties mentioned herein can be held liable for any loss or damage
incurred due to using this information. © Predica 2020