Three Easy Steps to Planning an Effective Cloud IT Strategy

Whether or not your company has an official cloud IT strategy, your organization is likely already using the cloud in some capacity. Perhaps it's on your phone (with iCloud or Google), a Software-as-a-Service you purchased, or a virtual machine hosting a website. 

Cloud may be driven by the IT department, but there's a good chance it's not.  Even as of two years ago, surveys showed that as many as 61% of businesses were using "Shadow IT," the practice of non-IT departments signing up for and using cloud services without the IT department's approval or knowledge. 

And when a cloud strategy isn't driven by IT, there can be challenges involved: a service level agreement that isn't in line with the requirements, or integration between platforms that won't easily connect.

In light of the risks of Shadow IT, here are three easy steps to establish a cloud strategy or assess your current strategy.

Step 1: Identify the core application requirements for your company.

In a Word or Excel table, or on paper, make a grid of the needs of your organization.  Here's an example: