The Cloud-Based Demand-Driven Supply Chain

CHAPTER 3Migrating to the Cloud

Migrating to the cloud requires a clearly defined strategy, and organizations should consider short‐ and long‐term goals, a methodology, and careful planning. There are many options for an organization to consider before deciding on a cloud strategy and an approach to executing such a vision. This journey could be undertaken alone by an organization or with the help of specialist firms and cloud vendors. Specialist firms such as EY, KPMG, and McKinsey, for example, can help with the defining, planning, and execution phases. Cloud providers typically provide assessment tools and services to help identify suitable options balancing strategic, business, technical, and financial needs of organizations wanting to move to a cloud. Consulting services firms or branches of cloud vendors can provide the workforce to help with the execution of plans (e.g., IT tasks, project management tasks). Moving to the cloud (e.g., private, public, hybrid) and selecting the suitable service types (e.g., infrastructure as a service [IaaS], platform as a service [PaaS], software as a service [SaaS]) require a paradigm shift of operations, workflow, and design of IT, and should therefore be assessed with diligence. Selecting the right strategic partner(s) for this change and journey to the cloud can also make the difference between failure and success, so careful assessment should be undertaken, applying suitable criteria that are important to each organization. Organizations ...