Cloud platform functions

The cloud introduces many technical changes as well as opportunities to streamline technical solutions. But general IT principles and business needs stay the same. You still need to protect sensitive business data. If your IT platform depends on a local area network, there's a good chance that you'll need network definitions in the cloud. Users who need to access applications and data will want their current identities to access relevant cloud resources.

While the cloud presents the opportunity to learn new skills, your current architects should be able to directly apply their experiences and subject matter expertise. Cloud platform functions are usually provided by a select group of architects who focus on learning about the cloud platform. These architects then aid others in decision making and the proper application of controls to cloud environments.

The skills needed to provide full platform functionality can be provided by:

• Enterprise architecture
• IT operations
• IT governance
• IT infrastructure
• Networking
• Identity
• Virtualization
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Application owners within IT

Preparation

• Foundations for Cloud Architecture: A Pluralsight course to help architect the right foundational solutions.
• Microsoft Azure Architecture: A Pluralsight course to ground architects in Azure architecture.
• Azure network services: Learn Azure networking basics and how to improve resiliency and reduce latency.

Review the following:

• Business outcomes
• Financial models
• Motivations for cloud adoption
• Business risks
• Rationalization of the digital estate

Minimum scope

Cloud platform duties center around the creation and support of your cloud platform or landing zones.

The following tasks are typically executed on a regular basis:

• Monitor adoption plans and progress against the prioritized migration backlog.
• Identify and prioritize platform changes that are required to support the migration backlog.

Meeting cadence:

Cloud platform expertise usually comes from a working team. Expect participants to commit a large portion of their daily schedules to cloud platform work. Contributions aren't limited to meetings and feedback cycles.

Deliverables

• Build and maintain the cloud platform to support solutions.
• Define and implement the platform architecture.
• Operate and manage the cloud platform.
• Continuously improve the platform.
• Keep up with new innovations in the cloud platform.
• Bring new cloud functionality to support business value creation.
• Suggest self-service solutions.
• Ensure solutions meet existing governance and compliance requirements.
• Create and validate deployment of platform architecture.
• Review release plans for sources of new platform requirements.

Next steps

As your cloud platform becomes better defined, aligning cloud automation functions can accelerate adoption. It can also help establish best practices while reducing business and technical risks.

Learn to align responsibilities across teams by developing a cross-team matrix that identifies responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) parties. Download and modify the RACI template.