In previous posts we´ve mentioned some particular points related the Microsoft cloud adoption framework (CAF). This one is about how the big titan use a different approach but literally very similar in terms of stakeholders as AWS does.

Let´s remember the most important steps for this methodology to adopt the cloud for their customers.

In the first post we just did an introduction on how Microsoft define their initial scope on the journey to the cloud taking three clear strategies: Business strategy, People strategy, Technology strategy.

Microsoft starts through guidance, tools and narratives based on previous experiences to shape these 3 strategies mentioned to prepare a cloud adoption plan.

Business strategy involves in the process several steps together…where it is crucial to identify motivations and business outcomes through the correct understanding of company´s processes, the current technologies and the stakeholders. But Microsoft goes one step ahead as they start to prioritize a first workload sooner than AWS, “a first project” aligned with the previous analysis which provide a great value to determine if the public cloud covers the evolution that the customer is looking for.

Afterwards Microsoft prefer to drill down a bit their steps to create their plan tailoring on three areas: Digital estate, initial organizational alignment and skill readiness. Then prepares its own cloud adoption plan based on the information and analysis done on these small steps.

So let´s prepare what it´s called the digital estate. To evaluate that you need to identify some concepts in terms of costs.

1. Cost Deltas which are fix cost. Some of them are very clear to identify or evaluate such as:
   • Software licensing.
   • Hosting expenses.
   • Electric bills.
   • Real estate rentals.
   • Cooling expenses.
   • Maintenance contracts.
2. Cost Deltas no so clear and more variable:
   • Temporary staff required for operations.
   • Equipment rentals.
   • Replacement parts.
   • Repair services.
   • Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) services.
   • Other expenses that don’t require capital expense approvals
3. Revenue Deltas. Revenue deltas should be forecast in partnership with business stakeholders. After the business stakeholders agree on a revenue impact, it can be used to improve the earning position.

With that information you are going to calculate your Gain from investment.

And identify the ROI from moving on prem to the cloud with the follewing formula:

Comparing these expectations with the TCO estimation and your Azure consumption forecast for the workloads to prioritize and move to the cloud is also a good exercise to convince your finance audience, that you are in the right direction.

Another critical point to struggle with it´s “organization structure” and the upskilling plan for the employees.

The first step of managing organizational alignment is to determine how the following organizational structures will be fulfilled:

1. Org chart alignment: Management hierarchies, manager responsibilities, and staff alignment will align to organizational structures.
2. Virtual teams (v-teams): Management structures and org charts remain unchanged. Instead, virtual teams will be created and tasked with the required functions.
3. Mixed model: More commonly, a mixture of org chart and v-team alignment will be required to deliver on transformation goals.

Beside these organization alignments you will address all the needs in terms of upskilling and provide training to your teams when they have to face with the first workload to be move to the cloud and the “Landing Zone” where you are going to prepare all the requirements in order to set up a management model, compute, networking, security, storage and interaction with other partners and cloud providers for your future IT solutions in the cloud.

In this previous phase to the landing zone you will prepare, and that is a very important task to take into account, your governance model which can be provided with Microsoft tools or a mix between Microsoft & Thirty party solutions.

Let´s see how to roll out the approach with Azure native tools:

So just to recap, every modern company has some form of digital estate that includes legacy solutions and even hardware, virtual machines (VMs), servers with its dependencies, applications more or less critical, data more or less sensitive, networking, a identity management model and so on. Essentially, a digital estate for Microsoft is the collection of IT assets that power business processes and supporting operations. The first layer of your success in to sell and consolidate your market, to be more innovative or to get more quick wins that your competitors and with the right digital estate that will be solid as a rock.

On the coming post we will be focus on the “Ready” approach from the Microsoft point of view where we will explain the basis to deploy a “Landing Zone”, Microsoft best practice and migration tools from both cloud providers.

On the last post we will provide a global view of AWS CAF and Microsoft CAF in a final comparison table.

Enjoy the journey to the cloud with me…see you then in the next post.