The cloud adoption journey

If your company is considering implementing a cloud adoption strategy, you're in good company — over 60% of business data is now stored in the cloud, up from 30% in 2015. This shift indicates what an impact cloud services make on your business's operations. When it comes to managing your organizational content in the 21st century, the cloud is king. 

Having a strategy for implementing cloud adoption smooths the process and helps your organization tackle challenges as they arise. Read on to discover what it takes to transform your company with the cloud. 

Are you considering cloud adoption? 

Operating efficiently and maintaining a competitive edge is vital for your business's success, whether you're in the retail industry or education. Investing in the right technology helps your company do the work that matters and do it well.

Cloud adoption is the process of moving your company's content from an on-premises data center to software and services hosted on the internet. The cloud uses remote servers to process and store content and enables your team members to access content from any device with an internet connection. 

This approach to your organization's IT infrastructure makes its internet-based capabilities more scalable, adaptable, and accessible for your people while reducing IT costs and improving data security. 

Organizations and companies across industries are implementing cloud content storage and processing. Practically every industry benefits from cloud adoption, including:

• Healthcare: The cloud enables healthcare facilities to manage and store patient records compliantly   
• Life sciences: Through cloud-connected devices, life sciences organizations collaborate more efficiently on clinical trials 
• Government: Cloud services help state and federal governments access critical information and provide an improved citizen experience 
• Education: Campuses, faculty, and students are more connected with cloud-based content 
• Nonprofit: Cloud adoption helps nonprofits connect with donors and volunteers to accomplish more together 
• Retail: An internet-based retail strategy helps companies market their products, optimize shipping, and save customer records
• Construction: The cloud connects architects, engineers, and construction teams to work as one and streamline projects 
• Professional services: Through the security and efficiency of the cloud, professional services organizations build partnerships with clients 

Building a cloud adoption framework 

The cloud adoption journey looks different for various companies and industries. Some chief information officers (CIOs) might prefer cloud adoption right off the bat, while others need time to weigh cloud adoption versus on-premises networks. Organizations might experience industry-specific challenges or develop different goals for their cloud adoption strategies. 

Your organization's cloud adoption framework will be based on unique needs. Consider your company's capabilities in the following areas to identify gaps and improve your cloud readiness.  

Business  

Before you enact cloud adoption, consider what motivations drive your strategy. Common business outcomes that motivate cloud adoption are:

• Fiscal: New revenue streams, profit increases, cost reduction 
• Flexibility: Reducing IT infrastructure complexity, meeting changing market demands, increasing business agility  
• Customer engagement: Gathering customer data, gaining insight, testing new strategies 
• Global reach: Scaling to international operations, maintaining security and compliance across global markets

People 

Your organization's culture, leadership style, and workforce attitude may need to evolve as part of the cloud adoption journey. Creating an organizational atmosphere of technological innovation helps smooth the transition to the cloud. 

Governance 

You may create several governance teams as part of your cloud adoption framework. Stakeholders like the chief information officer (CIO), chief data officer (CDO), and chief risk officer (CRO) may oversee cloud adoption while maximizing benefits and minimizing risks. A cloud strategy and adoption team ensures technical aspects of the strategy align with governance requirements. 

Security 

The security element of your cloud adoption framework deals with content accessibility, integrity, and compliance with relevant security requirements. 

Operations 

To provide the most benefits, your organization can implement cloud solutions at the level needed to achieve its desired outcomes. 

Once your organization builds its cloud adoption framework, it can move to the next stages of the cloud adoption journey. From creating a cloud adoption plan to choosing a provider and migrating to the cloud, these stages provide a roadmap for your company's digital transformation. 

The 6 stages of the cloud adoption journey

Companies working toward cloud adoption typically go through six stages in their cloud adoption journeys:

1. Making a business decision 

The first stage in the cloud adoption journey is the consideration phase, where you make the business decision to transition content and workloads to the cloud. Moving to the cloud is a significant decision and has business implications both during and after the transition. Carefully evaluate the cloud adoption process before moving onto the other stages of the cloud adoption journey. 

Decision-makers in your organization should learn how cloud adoption differs from traditional IT infrastructures. Moving content and workloads to the cloud will affect your company's security, compliance, and content control operations. While cloud adoption brings benefits, it also carries certain considerations. Carefully evaluate every potential business impact before making a decision. 

Evaluate your company's needs and desired business outcomes to get other stakeholders on board. The highest chances of success happen when your entire team commits to a cloud adoption strategy. If employees and stakeholders are simply motivated to move to the cloud because it's the CIO's decision, the implementation may not be as effective. Having multiple teams with specific roles in the cloud adoption process committed to achieving your business outcomes will help your organization achieve its goals. 

2. Creating an adoption plan 

Once you've decided to move forward with cloud adoption, it's time to develop a cloud adoption strategy. A cloud adoption plan involves multiple levels of consideration. Haphazardly transferring content, files, and workloads without a real strategy creates difficulties later in the process. Cloud adoption teams need a detailed, actionable plan for implementing the change in a way that aligns with business goals and needs. 

The first thing to think about is your people. Aligning your adoption goals with your people and technology is vital for a smooth transition. Your organization needs people who can execute the technical steps of cloud adoption and still maintain alignment with organizational goals throughout the process. Identify the individuals or groups within your organization who can best manage the technical execution of adoption, put governance controls in place, and otherwise implement the cloud adoption strategy.

Your organization's current processes will also need to evolve during the cloud adoption process. Once your teams are in place, prioritize your first workloads to move to the cloud. Then identify the applications you need to support cloud adoption for those workloads. If those applications are suited for the cloud, a "lift and shift" approach may be sufficient. Otherwise, the applications will need adjustments. 

The next step in creating your cloud adoption plan is to analyze your business IT architecture. Complicated content architecture will impact how much of your workload can transition to the cloud. During this stage of the process, determine whether all of your organization's workflows can migrate to the cloud or whether you will be able to transition only a portion of your workloads and applications. You may have to keep some of your workloads on-premises. 

The final step in creating your cloud adoption plan is establishing a timeline for cloud adoption. Based on the iterations for each step in the process, your timeline provides a rough estimate for the process as you move forward. 

3. Choosing a provider 

After your business has created its cloud adoption plan, it's time to select a cloud service provider. Your company has many options regarding where it hosts its cloud environment. Although many cloud service providers offer similar services, different cloud architectures have unique capabilities. 

Choose a cloud service provider based on two primary considerations. 

The first is whether the cloud service provider has the capabilities to meet your company's needs. Whatever your organization's goals for cloud adoption, choose a cloud service provider that reduces costs and complexity while powering secure collaboration across your organization. Your organization will also benefit from a cloud service provider that enables content management, e-signature, publishing, and data analytics. 

The second consideration is security standards. Content security is vital in today's market, where the average cost of a data breach is $9.44 million. Advanced security features like zero-trust security controls, data leak prevention, and threat prevention make your mission-critical content more secure against cyberattacks and simplify information governance. 

4. Migration 

Cloud migration is the adoption stage of the journey, where your organization's planning is finally implemented. Your cloud adoption plan guides the way, and your cloud services provider will also likely offer some resources and assistance as you move your content, files, and workloads to the cloud. 

The cloud migration process will depend on your organization's strategy and technology. For example, cloud adoption will take longer if you have to refactor or rebuild mission-critical applications to migrate. 

One of the most effective ways to migrate to the cloud is through software as a service (SaaS). SaaS is a cloud infrastructure of stand-alone applications delivered over the internet. SaaS modernizes business operations by hosting cloud-native technologies that enable security, compliance, collaboration, workflow automation, and more. Using SaaS allows a smooth transition to the cloud by migrating your company's content, permissions, and version history to cloud-based applications. 

Utilizing a few strategies may help your organization improve content migration. Start by moving one cloud workload to help your cloud adoption team identify and prepare for challenges that could arise later during the cloud adoption journey. Work with your cloud services provider to determine the essential security measures. 

Several factors could impact your organization's cloud migration, like:

• Large content migrations: The more content your organization has built up, the more time it could take to migrate it to the cloud
• Content integrity: Ensure all your content makes a complete transfer before you delete old iterations 
• Continued business operation: Work with your cloud services provider to ensure migration causes as little disruption to business operation as necessary 
• Migration monitoring: Define what processes you'll use to monitor security and cost management throughout the migration

5. Implementing security strategies 

This stage of the cloud adoption journey overlaps with the migration stage. Implementing security strategies for your cloud solution is essential, especially during migration. Cloud migration could result in some lost or corrupted files or create vulnerabilities that leave your content open to attackers. A robust data security strategy is vital for protecting your information. 

As you begin migrating content to the cloud, identify potential security and compliance issues that could arise during the process. Complete an information security risk assessment to recognize potential security challenges and develop a management strategy. The steps of an information security risk assessment include:

• Identifying your organization's assets 
• Detecting vulnerabilities 
• Identifying threats and their consequences
• Implementing security controls 

Once you know where your organization needs additional security, you can define and implement your security strategies. Strategies that could be helpful for your business' cloud adoption journey include:

• Multi-factor and single sign-on user authentication 
• Zero-trust application controls 
• Information flow management 
• AI-powered threat detection 

Compliance is another major consideration for migrating content to the cloud. Your cloud content solutions should aid your business in its goals and compliance requirements. If your organization operates internationally, compliance with various security standards can be challenging. Look for a cloud solution that addresses your compliance needs. Your cloud service provider might also help you manage the compliance requirements that apply to your industry. 

6. Post-migration and continued use 

The cloud adoption journey doesn't end with migration. Even if your cloud adoption goes smoothly, your organization's performance and security needs will change over time. The ability to continuously optimize your cloud solution is vital for improving your operations. Comparing your pre- and post-migration operations and evaluating performance allows your organization to make adjustments when needed and continuously use best practices for content management.

Manage your cloud solution post-migration by continuing to evaluate your business goals and how your cloud solution measures up. Designate an individual or team to oversee the reevaluation process and provide reports to executives and the CIO. Analyzing data is key to evaluating your cloud solution's performance over time. If you're seeing improvement toward your company's desired outcomes, your workflows are benefitting from the transition. Keep an eye out for opportunities to adjust applications and systems for further improvement. 

Content security is another area where continuous monitoring is critical. Cybercriminals constantly adjust to security measures and attempt to infiltrate business systems. To keep your cloud security in top form, continually perform security audits.

Your organization wants to provide the best services to its customers and clients and stay competitive in its industry. Continuing to optimize your cloud solution is crucial for accomplishing that goal. Cloud solutions and applications are constantly evolving, becoming better and faster with each update. As your organization grows, it may need solutions to new problems. Cultivate a mindset of continual improvement in your business to ensure you get the most out of your cloud services. 

Why move to the cloud? 

Although the cloud adoption journey requires significant planning and commitment from your team, it's well worth the effort. Consider some of the reasons why moving to the cloud might be one of the best decisions your organization could make.

Reduced operational costs 

Migrating your content and workloads to the cloud has the potential to reduce your organization's operating costs. On-premises cloud solutions require physical data centers, maintenance, and security. A cloud requires a small fraction of the cost upfront. Although cloud service providers charge monthly or yearly fees per user, the return on investment is significantly higher than for an on-premises content management solution. 

Easy accessibility and mobility 

Cloud adoption allows your organization to access content from anywhere and at any time. On-premises data solutions tether your company to a physical location. Cloud solutions are remarkably mobile, in contrast. The cloud enables your team to access business-critical information from any device with an internet connection. And you don't have to worry about greater accessibility decreasing your content security — the cloud brings its security and compliance features with it, so your organization's content is always protected. 

Scalability 

Your company's IT capabilities and physical space limit an on-premises solution. When you want to improve the services your business offers its clients, you need a content management solution that provides more flexibility. The cloud is highly scalable, so your organization can implement all the solutions it needs and none of the ones it doesn't. A SaaS option enables you to add or remove applications as your organization needs them, empowering you to take control of your cloud solution. 

Adaptability 

Cloud solutions are effortlessly adaptable to your organization's needs. As a business increases its clients or customers, the cloud handles higher content collection and processing requirements. The cloud also adapts to changing security needs. Whether your business needs to temporarily increase its cloud storage or move from a private to a hybrid network, the cloud is adaptable enough to accommodate the change. 

Improved security 

Security is a major concern for on-premises systems. Businesses manage these data centers themselves, and many don't have the IT infrastructure to maintain agility in an ever-changing security landscape. Using the cloud means your organization can focus its IT resources on internal matters.

Increased collaboration 

The cloud enables collaboration between departments and companies, helping organizations drive innovation and make decisions faster. Your company gains increased file accessibility by adopting the cloud, enabling your teams to share documents and workloads from anywhere. Cloud adoption also provides your business with insight into file versions and movement so you can track each project phase. 

Improved customer experience 

Whether your company serves customers, clients, or citizens, the cloud makes it easier to provide the experience they want. The cloud allows you to improve the quality of your offerings as you gain greater insight into your processes, making room for innovative improvement. Ultimately, the cloud's competitive edge translates into growth for your business. 

Discover the power of the Content Cloud

With a single secure platform for all your content, Box enables you to manage the entire content lifecycle: file creation, co-editing, sharing, e-signature, classification, retention, and so much more. We make it easy for you to collaborate on content with anyone, both inside and outside your organization. Frictionless, enterprise-grade security and compliance are built into our DNA, so you get total peace of mind that your content is protected. And with 1,500+ seamless integrations — as well as a range of native capabilities, like Box Sign — the Content Cloud provides a single content layer that ensures your teams can work the way they want.

The Content Cloud is a game changer for the entire organization, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity across every team. Contact us today, and explore what you can do with Box.

**While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blog post is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.