Cloud maturity stages: understand how it works

To stay innovative and competitive, companies need to know and implement strategies to drive their cloud maturity . Do you already feel familiar and know the impact of this concept?

A study by Deloitte pointed out that, despite recognizing the importance of adopting cloud services, 47% of companies recognize that “the cloud is more complex than they expected”.

Therefore, understanding the steps involved in the evolution of cloud maturity is essential to create good planning and make fewer mistakes along the way. 

This content will certainly help you in this process. Good reading!

After all, what is cloud maturity?

Cloud maturity is the name given to the journey an organization goes through when adopting cloud computing and, through it, being able to enjoy all its benefits. 

However, it is important to emphasize that this is not a single concept or that it involves a simplistic transformation, but that it covers several stages of development .

These phases help companies understand where they are on their cloud journey and what are the next steps to take to optimize their operations. 

Thus, understanding the steps involved to reach the highest level of cloud computing maturity is important to plan carefully, increase assertiveness and reduce the waste of resources throughout the process.

The categorization of maturity stages is based on four central themes: Learning, Leadership, Scale and Security .

Each phase represents a different stage of cloud growth and adoption . Learn more about each of them:

Apprenticeship

This is the early stage of cloud adoption. At this moment, the organization's professionals are exploring the possibilities and, as the name implies, learning about the concepts and technical capacity .

In this phase, the focus is on understanding the basic concepts of the cloud, such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). 

Organizations that are experiencing this moment must seek to understand the knowledge gaps that need to be filled, the main difficulties, the effort that will be required, etc.

Leadership

In the Leadership phase, organizations already have a deeper understanding of the cloud, the opportunities and challenges, but it becomes necessary to assess how leadership engages in this process.

It is worth noting that “Leadership” also means the role of self-organized teams and employees who have a more proactive attitude towards the migration project to the cloud .

It is important that, in this phase, the organization seeks to understand whether the leadership provides the necessary support and resources for employees, after the learning phase, to implement the necessary technologies.

Scale

The Scale phase happens when organizations are massively expanding their cloud presence. 

This means, in practice, that a good part of their operational workloads have migrated to the cloud environment and, therefore, the significant benefits in terms of costs, agility and performance are more clearly perceived.

In this sense, automation is a key part, as it allows companies to scale resources, respond to market demands and update applications much more quickly.

Also Read: Scalability: The Biggest Benefit Of Cloud Computing

Safety

At this stage, security and compliance are the watchwords . At this time, organizations need to proactively invest in advanced security measures to protect their data and ensure compliance with prevailing regulations.

Still, it is worth emphasizing that the concept of cloud governance must gain a major role, companies must be focused on mitigating risks and maintaining the integrity of their systems and data against any unauthorized access.

Tactical, strategic and transformational maturity

Within these maturity stages, organizations can be further categorized into three maturity levels: Tactical, Strategic and Transformational .

Tactical Maturity

At this level, companies are in the early days of cloud work, but are focused on one-off workload migrations and the cloud strategy is not yet a core part of their operations.

At the tactical level, there is still no clear and strategic plan to scale systems in the cloud.

Strategic Maturity

The strategic level represents the moment when organizations are already using the cloud as a fundamental part of their business strategy. 

This means that the company is able to innovate in products, services and advanced data analysis through cloud-based applications .

It is worth mentioning that, at this moment, efforts are no longer individualized. Collaboration and creating structured processes between IT and business teams must intensify to drive the digital evolution.

Transformational Maturity

At the highest level of maturity, the cloud becomes an enabling technology for complete digital transformation .

Companies that are in this stage are able to review their business models, adopt new ways of working and offer much better experiences to their customers, partners, suppliers and employees. 

After all, at that moment it becomes possible to innovate continuously and ensure the necessary agility for this to happen.

Workflows: Understand what epics are

To successfully evolve through the phases of cloud maturity, companies need to understand their workflows and how they fit into each stage. 

This is where the concept of “epics” comes in . Maybe you've already heard about them within the universe of agile methodologies.

Epics are representations of complex tasks or processes in a workflow , which help you identify areas of greatest impact and prioritize specific actions.

In the context of cloud applications, it is essential to apply this concept to understand what are the most important aspects of each phase and workflow aimed at implementing new technologies.

The epics place the project in three essential pillars, which are People, Processes and Technology , which allow leaders and teams to understand what are the essential areas and processes in each of them and, based on these definitions, create action plans in the tactical and operational levels.

When working with epics, a structured and data-driven approach is essential. This is where partnering with a company that specializes in cloud solutions becomes an even more decisive factor .

These companies have experience and knowledge about each of these phases, areas and processes, in addition to deep knowledge about the technology, which will allow your organization to implement cloud applications much more smoothly, quickly and efficiently .

Auto.Sky : complete platform for the use of ERPs and cloud applications

Cloud adoption is not just the implementation of a new technology, but a true transformation journey that spans multiple stages of maturity. 

Each stage is important and offers unique opportunities to streamline operations and align business and technology strategy. 

Auto.Sky then comes up with comprehensive solutions for companies looking to simplify their journey to the cloud Auto.Sky

• Auto.Sky Platform : migration of client-server applications to the cloud, scalability with integrated cybersecurity and cost predictability with per-user pricing.
• Auto.Sky Services : cost optimization for those already in the cloud, environment support and management, workload migration and architecture modernization.
• Auto.Sky Business One : migration from SAP Business One to the cloud and added add-ons.

With Auto.Sky , companies have a reliable and scalable infrastructure, allowing them to focus on their core business, while technical management is taken care of by experts .

We provide an all-in-one platform that ranges from infrastructure administration to cybersecurity management, backups and disaster recovery.

If you're ready to take your cloud strategy to the next level and want cutting-edge solutions, schedule a demo now!