Enterprise Cloud Transformation: The Road to Innovation

Cloud transformation for enterprises involves people, process, and technology. In this guide, we’ll walk through strategy and show you how enterprises leverage cloud transformation to solve urgent challenges. Before diving deeper into best practices of cloud transformation, there are some important considerations to understand why developing a strong enterprise cloud strategy is important.

Key terms for understanding cloud transformation

Cloud migration for enterprises vs. cloud transformation

To start, let’s clarify the difference between migrating to the cloud and implementing a strategic enterprise cloud transformation:

Cloud migration

Sometimes known as “lift-and-shift,” cloud migration means moving data from physical servers to virtual machines or from one cloud to another. There are many benefits to cloud migration, but if a migration project is just copying on-prem systems in the cloud, it’s not taking full advantage of the power of the cloud. That’s why migration is often the first step in a larger strategy.

Cloud transformation

Cloud transformation is more than a move to the cloud. It’s transformative because it involves strategically optimizing applications and processes to maximize the capabilities of cloud-native services. You may also encounter the term Well-Architected Framework (WAF). Cloud vendors typically recommend WAF best practices, though your strategy and implementation will be as unique as your enterprise.

Cloud environment models and options

Cloud environments range from public to private and simple to complex.

Public cloud

Third-party providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offer cloud services over the public internet. These providers operate massive data centers with resources used by multiple customers. A multi-tenant model keeps each customer’s resources isolated and secure.

Advantages of public cloud hosting include:

• Unlimited capacity on demand with the ability to scale resources up and down
• Access to a wide range of managed services
• Consumption-based pricing; no capital investment required

Private cloud

Some enterprises with strict compliance requirements or custom security configurations opt for private clouds. These clouds use computing environments that aren’t shared with other organizations. An organization may configure its own hardware to pool resources on an as-a-service model or use dedicated third-party resources.

Advantages of private cloud include:

• Cloud computing innovations (for example, virtualization and self-service)
• Greater control over the environment
• Can be hosted either on-premises or by a third party

Hybrid and multicloud

Although managing multiple platforms increases complexity, it’s an increasingly common strategy.

Multicloud means using more than one (typically public) cloud provider. Hybrid cloud can mean combining both public and private cloud resources or combining cloud and non-cloud infrastructure.

According to Statista, 70% of respondents in a 2024 survey of worldwide cybersecurity professionals said they had deployed two or more public clouds at their organizations. A different Statista report says as of 2024, 73% of enterprise cloud decision-makers surveyed worldwide operated a hybrid cloud.

Advantages of hybrid and multi-cloud architectures include:

• Leveraging best-in-class services from multiple vendors
• Avoiding vendor lock-in
• Increasing resilience and redundancy by avoiding a bottleneck or single point of failure
• Blending the benefits of private cloud’s isolation and public cloud’s flexibility
• Optimizing cloud transformation for large enterprises with entrenched legacy systems

Key benefits of cloud transformation for enterprise

Source: Code-B

Cost efficiency

Cost cutting and cost avoidance are prime motivators for cloud business transformation for enterprises across industries.

Cloud providers’ consumption-based models let companies trade the capital expense of setting up data centers for variable operating expenses. Reducing or eliminating investment in hardware can result in enormous cost savings, freeing up resources for growth and operations, and shifting the responsibility for server maintenance and updates to cloud providers can reduce operating costs.

Agility and innovation

While unexpected demand can overwhelm under-provisioned infrastructure, cloud platforms effortlessly scale to handle peak loads and global user bases. For example, retailers using cloud services can easily handle seasonal or holiday spikes, then return to normal traffic levels and data management costs. This translates to faster, more reliable experiences for end-users everywhere.

Cloud-native architecture also allows companies to speed up their development, testing, and deployment cycles and better respond to both customer needs and competitive threats.

Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) particularly rely on cloud computing. A thoughtful enterprise cloud computing strategy gives teams the scalability and flexibility they need to innovate with these technologies.

Security and resilience

Security, reliability, and disaster recovery are core strengths of hyperscalers like AWS, GCP, and Azure. These providers use their scale to keep data safe and systems resilient with enterprise-grade safeguards including automated integrity checks, 24/7 security teams, and built-in redundancy. That reliability is increasingly critical in the face of increasing regulatory coverage, market volatility, geopolitical unrest, and natural disasters.

What does an enterprise cloud transformation strategy look like?

Set business-aligned goals

The first step in building an enterprise cloud strategy is to define clear goals aligned with business strategy. As with any enterprise IT transformation, clearly articulated vision is critical for securing both executive and board buy-in.

Audit current infrastructure

To assess cloud readiness, compile a complete inventory of applications, databases, servers, data centers, and networks. Don’t just list these items; document their interdependencies, cloud suitability, and stakeholders.

Assemble a cross-functional cloud adoption team

Include IT, security, ops, and business leads. Assess internal skills and DevOps maturity to identify gaps and training needs.

Choose your cloud model and provider

Choose a cloud model—public, private, hybrid, or multicloud—that fits your business goals. Then, select vendors based on capabilities and compatibility.

Develop a phased migration timeline

Develop a roadmap to migrate services and applications in waves. During the transition, some systems will have moved to the cloud while others are still on-premises. Plan the migration to ensure business continuity throughout every phase of the transition and put a rollback plan in place for every wave.

Specify an approach for each application and workload:

• Rehost: Move to source environments to the cloud without changes
• Replatform: Optimize for the cloud as you move them
• Refactor or re-architect: Modify to take advantage of cloud-native features
• Replace: Switch from legacy applications to SaaS alternatives
• Retire: Decommission or archive

Design cloud architecture and governance

Establish standards for security, access controls, network design, and compliance. Set up a scalable cloud environment with strong guardrails.

Migrate in phases

Pilot the process with a non-critical application. Note any errors or gaps in your security or network setup, then iterate. By migrating in planned waves, you can monitor closely for any issues.

Enable adoption with change management

Support cultural change management with consistent communication, visible wins, and staff training. Celebrate adoption milestones and promote experimentation.

Track progress and adapt

Once your business is operational in the new environment, track metrics to gauge progress towards the original business goals and be ready to adjust as needed to meet them. As technology evolves, we get feedback from teams on what is working and what isn’t working. Regularly revisit governance policies. Use this information to continuously improve your cloud strategy.

Top metrics for assessing progress against cloud goals

Source: Flexera

Proof in practice: Enterprise cloud transformation case studies

Improving financial services with cloud and DevOps

When a famous Middle East banking company needed a technology partner with expertise in cloud and DevOps services, they turned to Intellias. Legacy systems with limited scalability and configurability have led to the development of inefficiencies and delays in bringing services to market.

Intellias helped transform the organization’s Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline with a Kubernetes platform. Code quality has improved up to 80%, and it now takes just 10–15 minutes to push a product from dev to prod. A Blue-Green deployment strategy means a rollback takes just seconds. This shift has reduced operational costs while improving resilience and security.

Building resilience at a global AgriTech with cloud transformation

Military action recently threatened the reliability of a leading global AgriTech corporation’s core product. To ensure continuity, they partnered with Intellias.

Intellias supported a cloud transformation strategy that involved moving to an Azure cloud instance. This move improves business resilience and the company’s ability to maintain continuity in force majeur situations. The client’s internal tech team successfully performed all production work with instructions from experts at Intellias.

Challenges and risks in cloud transformation

All major changes come at risk. Some of the most common challenges of cloud transformation projects include:

• Downtime and service disruptions: While cloud computing is highly reliable, the migration process can lead to service disruptions and downtime.
• Data privacy and security fears: Despite the increased security of the cloud and reduced risk of cyberattack or physical disaster, challenges can arise regarding how to maintain data privacy, compliance, and security requirements in the cloud.
• Skill gaps and cloud expertise shortages: A 2024 IDC survey of North American IT leaders found that nearly two thirds reported negative business impacts due to a shortage of IT skills, and “a variety of cloud skills, including architecture, data management and storage, and software development, are among the ten most needed skills identified by survey respondents.”
• Vendor lock-in concerns: When so many services sit in the ecosystem of a single provider, organizations may get nervous about vendors’ leverage pricing negotiations and availability issues.

A thorough enterprise cloud transformation strategy will help head off these challenges, and an experienced technology partner can address any issues that emerge.

Intellias’ best practices for enterprise cloud transformation

As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, a Gold Microsoft Partner, and a certified Google Cloud Partner, Intellias has years of experience helping businesses get the most from high-performing cloud environments.

Companies who go it alone often fall back on the toolsets they’re used to using. That way, everyone who starts the project knows it well and understands the tools involved. But those aren’t necessarily the best tools for the job, or skills you’ll be able to easily hire for in the future. As soon as you make new hires, onboarding them to the system might become a nightmare.

At Intellias, we use the same standard across projects with a limited set of technologies. The resulting systems are robust and easy to learn, and ongoing maintenance and improvement doesn’t depend on institutional knowledge.

We provide cloud engineering expertise to support end-to-end enterprise cloud transformation. Our experts deliver the strategic and tactical help you need while giving your team members experience and confidence to gradually take control of the reins.

Intellias’ 5-step process for successful cloud transformation

Drive your business forward with a strong enterprise cloud strategy

In a cloud-first business landscape, enterprise cloud strategy is key to staying competitive and resilient.

If your team is making its first foray into cloud migration or facing unique challenges, consider drawing on outside assistance to make sure your cloud transformation project succeeds on the first try. Contact our team today.