Beginning with the End in Mind: Thinking About a “Cloud Exit” Strategy
October 15, 2024
Written by Tom Glodowski, Managing Director
As large enterprise IT organizations continue to develop and mature their approach to cloud computing, many are evaluating their cloud posture and developing strategies for enabling mobility of their cloud assets – current and future. While cloud continues to grow in the enterprise space today, there are many factors that may drive IT leaders to consider when and how an exit makes sense. So, what is a “cloud exit” and when should IT organizations begin thinking about and planning for the mobility of their cloud applications, data, and services? This Windval Perspective will examine the topic of a “cloud exit” and how enterprise IT leaders can evaluate the mobility strategy and capabilities before, during, and after assets are deployed in the cloud.
At a Glance:
Questions we will discuss and consider throughout this perspective include…
Will a dynamic technology industry and new cloud experiences drive technology professionals to modernize their cloud strategies and re-think their approach to application delivery and hosting?
For what reasons might you decide that the cloud you are in (or the cloud in general) is no longer the best fit for your applications?
Have you thought through the mechanics for how a cloud exit or change may be successfully executed?
What are the common cloud exit / change actions?
What questions should you ask yourself to better understand your current cloud maturity posture?
The Evolution of Cloud and Enterprise IT Cloud Strategy
The profound and positive impact of cloud computing on the IT industry and business in general cannot be denied. The development and rise of cloud computing has seen remarkable growth and maturity in features, capabilities, scale, and adoption since the mid-late 2000’s. The growth is staggering when reminded how short of a period we have been using cloud computing… consider the three primary hyperscale Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud service providers (CSP) and their approximate production start dates:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) – 2006
Microsoft Azure – 2008
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – 2010
In addition to the “Big 3” above, there are also a myriad of common and specialized Software as a Service (SaaS) providers that enterprise organizations leverage to deliver key service capabilities.
Given the explosive growth of cloud computing, the reliance enterprise IT has placed on cloud computing, and the relatively young age of modern cloud computing, it is interesting to think about the cloud lifecycle and how it may evolve as a component of enterprise IT service delivery.
Is cloud computing here to stay in the mainstream or only partially?
Will cloud be a permanent fixture for customer applications and technology infrastructures or only for some of them?
Is cloud part of a long-term cycle that will eventually recede to a degree and balance out across the industry along with other technology delivery architectures such as hybrid cloud or on-premises private cloud environments?
Is my organization and our relevant future-state strategies adaptable and flexible to account for potential future changes in cloud computing?
Is my organization equipped with the skills, roles, and responsibilities to support our business and technology goals in cloud computing?
Some organizations are beginning to ask questions like those listed above and are taking steps to modernize their initial cloud strategies.
In a Windval Perspective published earlier this year titled “Is Cloud First Dead?” we examined why the “cloud first” strategies seen in the early years of cloud have been cast aside in favor of “cloud smart” (cloud when and where it makes good sense). This strategic shift in approach and messaging has emerged as enterprise IT organizations seek to make informed, proactive decisions around their cloud estate and better align their technology services (and investments) to business objectives and capabilities.
Through a “cloud smart” approach, IT and business leaders must not only collaborate to decide when to migrate or develop an application in the cloud, but they must also ask under what circumstances is a “cloud exit” prudent? The drivers and complexity of leaving the cloud may be as important, if not more important, as the decision was to enter the cloud in the first place. Proper preparation, planning and execution are key for cloud exits/changes.
Common Reasons to Consider a “Cloud Exit”
It is important to consider how long an application lifecycle will remain in a cloud-delivered fashion. Even if the future is bright and the cloud delivery of an application is going well, there may come a day when the application needs to exit the cloud-delivered model (or change within the same or different cloud). What are some common reasons to consider a cloud exit?
Forced Exit Scenario – CSP no longer supports application or workload running, cloud service no longer available.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – cost to run application or service workload are too high (or increasing) in comparison to competition (other CSP or internal management on-premises), workload designed inefficiently for the CSP environment, etc.
Shifting Budget Requirements – wrong “color of money” relative to financial accounting preference (operating expense versus capital expense) or budget posture.
Reliability / Service Level Agreement (SLA) Issues – service level agreements no longer align with business (or internal IT) requirements, history of performance or reliability issues (i.e. outage events).
Evolving Cybersecurity Requirements – lack of required cybersecurity protection and capabilities within the CSP environment or perhaps a cybersecurity event or data breach has occurred forcing the evaluation of cybersecurity requirements for your tenant.
Regulatory Compliance – lack of required capabilities, features, observability, or granular control for required regulated industry workloads.
Key Service and Feature Innovation – lack of innovation or investment by your current CSP, lack of key features needed, not keeping up the competitive pace in the industry, purpose-built service capabilities for application performance exist elsewhere.
The list above represents only a few of the reasons an organization may consider a cloud exit strategy for a key application or broader service portfolio. Every organization should have their own criteria for evaluating cloud readiness, application placement, and mobility / exit capability of their application estate.
How will you determine if a cloud exit or change is the correct course of action?
Begin with the End in Mind
No matter the reason for a “cloud exit” event, the move can be complex and should ideally be planned well ahead of an actual need to change from or within the cloud. Before a hosting decision for an application is made, it is important to think about what reasons or changes might occur in the future that would alter or reverse that cloud hosting decision. Enterprise IT organizations should have an established cloud council charged with developing and maintaining their cloud strategy, inclusive of a defined a cloud exit strategy that highlights the scenarios and applications in which a detailed exit plan is or will be required. High level questions should be answered through a thoughtfully developed exit strategy, for example…
what applications / workloads qualify for an exit plan?
who owns the data?
when and how often should exit plans be reviewed?
how and when will an exit or change be achieved?
How did you prepare in advance for a cloud exit scenario, if at all? How will you successfully implement a change from or within the cloud?
Ensuring requirements, application implementation details and the supporting infrastructure environment are fully documented is important to establish and rigorously maintain. Making sure boundary systems, APIs and supported integrations with other applications and services are well documented is also vital to the planning and execution process. Ensuring your organization ultimately has control, format awareness and backups of your data contained within the application is imperative to ensure a future cloud exit is not only possible, but successful. Creating visibility and understanding of these critical elements will not only support mobility of your application portfolio in the future but also ensure that your cloud environments (and contracts) are designed for success in the present.
Common Actions When Change is Needed
Development of a thoughtful cloud exit strategy, detailed application / workload documentation, and carefully designed application specific exit plans are not trivial efforts. The work can be complex and time consuming, but the outcomes of this important planning and preparation leads to a far more straightforward course of action decision. Common actions include…
Do nothing (stop usage / sunset the application)
Migrate to the same application/capability at a colocation provider
Migrate to the same application/capability back in an on-premise data center
Move the application/capability to a different cloud service provider
Switch to a different off-the-shelf product/application elsewhere
Develop a new product/application
Refactor or re-platform to modernize in the same cloud to reduce or avoid CSP usage (cost)
These actions may be complex efforts in and of themselves, but the ability to make informed decisions based on agreed upon criteria is a significant win for enterprise IT leaders.
Suggested Next Steps
Cloud exit is an essential component of modern enterprise cloud strategies that are centered around being “cloud smart”. Cloud exit/change alone is not a trivial matter. As you continue your cloud journey, these self-assessment questions can help confirm your current cloud posture and identify appropriate next steps in advancing cloud maturity for your organization:
How is our cloud strategy working for us? Has it created any unintended consequences for us? Do we foresee a need to balance cloud assets with other application delivery models as we have learned and matured over time?
Do we have a handle on our current cloud spend? Is it well-understood and aligned with current priorities? Do other models make more sense?
Do we have a documented cloud exit strategy? If so, has it been applied to our cloud application estate? Is our cloud exit strategy regularly maintained and applied in our application decision making processes?
Have we established clear, foundational principles to guide cloud exit preparation, planning and implementation?
If you answered “no” or “it’s not clear” to any of the above questions, you are not alone! Windval works with enterprise organizations to answer these questions, develop and align cloud strategy and exit criteria with business objectives and priorities, and set a confident direction that drives value for your IT investments.