Webinar Slides

8 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Pulse Survey | Improving Business Operations and Executing a Growth Strategy with an Agile Cloud "People can see the value intuitively. It doesn't take this leap of logic for them to say, 'Right, going to the cloud makes sense because of these long-term effects,'" says Michael Fuller, a principal with The Hackett Group. because the cloud vendor has more resources to devote to it, agrees Ulbrich. In conversations with executives and staff alike, he compared cloud security to putting money in a bank, which can protect it better than an individual can at home. "Those kinds of stories and comparisons help to make technology more understandable," he says. Some frustrations that have been common in the past when making decisions about investing in the cloud do not trouble most respondents, suggesting that they are finding ways to address them. For example, while regulated industries may face restrictions on how they store and manage their data, only 23% of respondents highlight regulatory compliance as a challenge they face when making cloud investment decisions. According to Fuller, organizations may be able to address some regulatory concerns with their vendors. In addition, only 14% of respondents cite as a challenge the negative impact on corporate balance sheets when cloud investments shift technology spending from capital to operating budgets—an outcome that may arise from accounting rules. Fuller adds that executives have learned how to explain their cloud spending and that vendors have developed contract language that offers an accounting workaround. Conclusion Transitioning to cloud-based technology infrastructure and platforms may be inevitable, but it isn't easy, and it requires a long-term commitment from business leaders across the enterprise. "Often, you have a business leader who sees the value of the cloud, but there's not necessarily that broad strategic view across the entire company leadership. So you see one leader try and do it for their organization," says Nims. "But the big value for us [at Capital One] was having the very top leadership discuss, and align, that this is what's best for the entire company, not a decision being made lower in the company for a specific organization." For business and technology leaders who are making the case for such investments, drawing the connection between modernizing technology infrastructure and future growth is often critical. Benchmarks and use cases from the same industry can help hesitant business leaders understand the ways the cloud enables them to generate business value more quickly. "People can see the value intuitively," suggests The Hackett Group's Fuller. "It doesn't take this leap of logic for them to say, 'Right, going to the cloud makes sense because of these long-term effects.'" Being clear-eyed about the challenges and risks of running technology infrastructure and platforms in the cloud, and what it will take to meet them, is also essential. But so is understanding the competitive risks of maintaining the status quo, especially when the customer experience is impacted. New cloud-native companies are able to offer "a new way of engaging that the customer finds really compelling," Brinda asserts. "That's going to put a company at most risk if they're stuck behind."

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