Nearly three-quarters (71%) of government, defence and aerospace organisations in the UK agree that UK security could be compromised if they experienced a breach of official data, causing impacts at a national or international level (or even worse – both). This was just one of the findings of our recent Digital Advantage research study study which also showed that cloud migration is a key component of over half (55%) of these organisations’ digital transformation journeys.
So how can organisations in high trust sectors get the balance right between embracing transformation and maintaining the high levels of security required? In our experience of supporting our customers in their cloud transformation programmes, we have found that there are some common challenges faced when undergoing a migration project.
Challenge one: there’s no ‘one-size fits all’ approach for high trust organisations
When carrying out a large migration project, it is important to recognise that each operational workload may need a different migration strategy. Effectively managing different migration strategies combined with the constantly evolving technology landscape and organisational picture is no small feat.
A consolidated migration strategy is needed. This should addresses the findings from readiness assessments, and should provide a plan for the future state technology architecture. Of course, in defining the strategy, it is likely that details will emerge which impact the readiness assessments, so an open dialogue should be encouraged to make sure that all points are rooted out.
The flexibility offered by cloud computing may present different options for the customer, and the architectural design should be tailored to their business requirements. It is therefore vital that close engagement with partners and the customer is managed throughout, to align expectations and outcomes with the wider migration strategy.
Furthermore, the strategy for each migration programme needs to take in to account:
- The organisation’s capacity to change
- Human capital and skills
- Security/privacy
- Budget/controls/governance
Challenge two: understanding the wider business impact
Once a migration to the cloud has been justified, it is still easy to underestimate the impact on the wider business functions. Some points to consider are:
- Technological changes. This is the natural focus of an assessment given the fundamental changes that will be needed to get to the cloud. It is not however the end of the assessment. As well as the technological impact, it’s important to look at whether there is a data migration challenge too. For example, a full stack migration of applications will require comparable cloud based solutions.
- Commercial impact. Moving to a subscription-based service is likely to require a rewrite of the commercial relationships with existing suppliers, and may stretch the existing mechanisms available for contracting work. Some legacy vendors may not provide solutions that are cloud "ready". Some may offer their own cloud hosted (though centralised) services and so contractual arrangements must be assessed alongside the technology impact.
- Organisational impact. The existing technology and services teams are unlikely to be organised to manage a cloud environment if they were designed to manage on premise infrastructure. The impact here is greater than just infrastructure teams or service teams, and making use of cloud services will require changes to the ways of working across the full stack of technology teams. Also consider here what governance changes may be needed, including the management of continuous subscription based cost optimisation, as this can catch organisations out.
So what would we recommend?
Planning your migration journey will put an organisation in better stead than rushing into things. Migrations can fail (and have!) due to poor planning and requirement capture.
Migrations are unique, each organisation has its own legacy products, data and infrastructure requirements that are unlike counterparts. Assessment of the technology landscape is vital and can reduce pain later on as unknowns become managed aspects of the new cloud estate.
And finally, having supportive, experienced cloud experts to support you on that journey is key to success.
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About the author
Emma Parkin is a Strategic Campaigns Manager at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
emma.parkin@baesystems.com
James Spicer is a Senior Consultant at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
james.spicer@baesystems.com
In response to rapidly changing market dynamics, government organisations are resorting to a new operating architecture, to divide operations into two separate security networks.