2. Fear of Potential Job Loss
As organizations migrate work to the cloud, many
employees will see the benefits these moves can pro-
vide – including more resources at their disposal and
improvements in the overall health of the company.
But other employees will see the cloud as a threat.
More automation means less human work, and that
can mean job losses. People can start fearing for their
futures which hurts morale and saps an organiza-
tion’s strength.
The best approach is to
clearly
communicate
that a cloud initiative
may trigger job consoli-
dation. People are smart:
If you close a data center,
they know that can
impact certain jobs. If
the move to the cloud is
going to affect people,
try to have frank discus-
sions about how new
teams may need to be
formed and how individ-
uals may have to adapt
their roles.
If cloud migrations will
not affect people’s jobs, communicate this clearly as
well. Calm employees’ fears early on, and proceed
with the work at hand.
3. Lack of Clarity Around
Regulatory Controls
As organizations move to the cloud, they need to
understand how every step they take impacts the
regulations and compliance standards they follow in
their businesses. Any confusion in this area can pose
problems. For starters, the organization’s Gover-
nance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and security offi-
58 | THE DOPPLER | FALL 2018
cers have to give the staff direction about how to pro-
ceed. Without that clarity, the organization will
struggle to move forward with a new technology
platform.
If the organization is confused, it needs to bring in
someone who understands the regulatory control
issues and can take people through an education pro-
cess. Cloud Technology Partners has done this for a
number of firms, bringing Chief Security Officer
(CSO) and GRC leaders
through a defined pro-
cess, and educating them
on what will happen in
public cloud.
4. Lack of a Holistic,
Integrated Plan
and Executive
Alignment
What does a successful
cloud program look like?
How do you measure
progress?
Are
you
embracing the cloud to
respond to markets, or
just to lower your opera-
tional costs? While these
might seem like obvious questions to answer before
you embark on a cloud initiative, it is surprising to see
how many organizations have not thought these
issues through.
If you have not settled on KPIs that define your views
of success, that is a huge red flag. If you do not have
the right dashboards in place, you will not have agree-
ment on when you have crossed the finish line. Again,
you will need to bring in an expert to help you develop
a plan for where you are going, what you are trying to
accomplish and how swiftly you are moving along the
chosen path.