Blog A Cloud Centre of Excellence is a brilliant idea, but only 15% of companies have one
So what’s everyone waiting for?
By Insight Editor / 21 Mar 2022 / Topics: Cloud
By Insight Editor / 21 Mar 2022 / Topics: Cloud
The cloud has become an integral part of business, this is nothing new. Just about every company is working in the cloud in some form or another. Now, the cloud is at the heart of every digital transformation, and almost all organisations are implementing this new way of working, right? So you would expect that because the cloud has taken centre stage, companies would make sure they are continuously learning from cloud implementations and the use of cloud applications. And you would also think that this expertise and knowledge would be evaluated, discussed and improved at some stage. The concept of a Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE for short) has therefore been popping up all over the world for some time now.
Let’s start by briefly explaining what a CCoE is. A CCoE is a more formal way of sharing expertise and knowledge about the cloud internally, and leveraging this experience. A group of experts (IT or business-related) analyse, among other things, how cloud applications are accepted in the company and how implementations are standardised (upgrades, etc.), as well as monitoring the continuous availability of the cloud platform. In other words, the CCoE team ultimately needs to ensure that cloud implementations improve efficiency for the company, and that their acceptance is accelerated within the organisation.
How far advanced are Belgian companies in this regard? We asked 100 IT professionals and, to our surprise, 62% of them didn’t even know what a Cloud Centre of Excellence was. Of those who did know (37%), just under half said they already had a CCoE in their organisation, and a small number (10%) said they were planning to look at this in 2022.
The main tasks for those companies with a CCoE is to focus on optimising security, increasing performance, monitoring cloud governance and controlling costs. These are proven to be significant tasks. So why don’t more companies have one? A possible answer could be that it simply is not an issue for them at the current time.
So let's have a look at how relevant a CCoE could already be today. We asked a number of IT professionals what their main challenges are for the year ahead. Their answers were: secure remote access, cloud-based office productivity solutions, and team collaboration solutions. In other words, all three challenges are inextricably linked to the cloud!
So it would be better for us to do things right, and learn and improve on a continuous basis. Because, let’s face it, the cloud journey isn’t always a pleasant one for many companies. For example: a particular environment may no longer be fully compliant after a cloud migration, costs could be higher than budgeted, users many not fully support it, or it may not be sufficiently scalable. A CCoE can therefore play an important role in improving the process and doing things better in the future.
So where do you start? Most cloud vendors such as AWS, MS and Google provide very good information on how to set up a CCoE. Gartner and IDC also have extensive reports on the subject. In practice, of course, you will need a competent team to run your CCoE. And you might be able to find that expertise in your own organisation already. But this seems to be a serious showstopper because half of the IT professionals we surveyed (51%) said that finding qualified IT staff is one of their biggest issues. Alternatively, you can hire external experts who are dedicated to creating effective cloud implementations as part of a successful digital transformation. A mix of internal and external talent can make a CCoE a very powerful tool. So, in light of the growing importance of the cloud and the increasing IT budgets being spent on this technology, do not hesitate for a moment longer, and start setting up a CCoE straight away.
