Enterprise Cloud Adoption - Cloud Maturity Assessment Model

The introduction and use of cloud computing by an organization has the promise of significant benefits that include reduced costs, improved services, and a pay-per-use model. Organizations that successfully harness these benefits will potentially have a distinct competitive edge, due to their increased agility and flexibility to rapidly respond to an ever changing and complex business environment. However, as cloud technology is a relatively new phenomenon, there is still a lot to learn about the adoption and use of cloud, including issues such as security, data protection, interoperability, service maturity, and return on investment. These issues need to be considered, and if possible remediated, to enable an organization to effectively manage its cloud adoption journey.This paper describes an assessment model that was developed by the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) using a multi method, two-phased approach. The first phase involved a review of the current academic and practitioner literature in the area of cloud. Based on the key insights identified, together with inputs from a workgroup of industry experts an online cloud adoption assessment instrument was developed. This assessment instrument aimed to provide organizations with a management structure to understand and assess their Enterprise IT capability maturity to evaluate, introduce, and manage cloud services. The second phase employed the principles of design science and open innovation to pilot, test, validate, and refine the cloud adoption assessment in collaboration with industry-based practitioners.As companies continue to grapple with the issues posed by cloud, the cloud adoption assessment will allow an organization to clearly determine their ability to manage:Cloud securityComplianceData protectionCloud service provider(s)CostsImpact on business and ITThe interoperability and integration between existing in- house and cloud-based servicesBy using the assessment model, the level of maturity will identify areas of strength and weakness within the organization and serve as the basis for an improvement roadmap, to ensure the successful adoption and on-going management of cloud.