Cloud Strategy
A migration-ready investment thesis, grounded in unit economics. We turn a twelve-slide cloud ambition into a board-paper with TCO, sequence, and exit criteria your CFO will actually defend.
The problem
Most cloud strategies are a procurement event in a trench coat.
A signed EDP, a lift-and-shift wave, and a deck promising 30% savings. Eighteen months later the bill is up, the architecture is flatter, and nobody can explain why.
We build strategies around the unit economics of the workloads themselves — what each one costs, what it earns, and how it behaves under load. Vendor choice comes last. Sometimes it doesn't come at all.
The 6R framework
Six cohorts. Every workload lands in exactly one.
A disposition decision for every workload — defended with unit economics, complexity score, and a dependency map. The migration wave plan writes itself after that.
Move now. Optimise once the platform is alive.
Best for steady-state, low-change workloads where the economic win is hypervisor consolidation, data-centre exit, or DR simplification — not architectural transformation.
Typical fit
- Legacy ERPs with short roadmaps
- Regional DR targets
- Data-centre exit programmes
What to watch
Limited upside. Costs often rise 10–20% before FinOps closes the gap.
Three-year TCO — indicative
A business case finance can audit line by line.
Eight cost categories, three-year horizon, sensitivity-tested on FX, utilisation, and reservation coverage. Composite from a recent mid-enterprise engagement; every figure traces back to a named workload in the disposition map.
// assumptions: 3.5% FX buffer · 72% SP coverage target · 3-yr plan
Roadmap
Three horizons. One dependency map.
Horizons overlap on purpose. Capability built in H1 unblocks H2 work; H2 rituals are what keep H3 honest. The programme is never paused for the next phase — only the headline shifts.
- Landing zone live
- Compliance baseline
- Waves 1–2 migrated
- FinOps rhythm set
- Replatform wave complete
- CCoE stood up
- SaaS replacements shipped
- Unit economics visible
- Refactor wave live
- Platform team mature
- Data + AI online
- Board cadence permanent
Engagement deliverables
Six artefacts.
Each one earns its place at the board table.
A typical engagement lands between 120 and 180 slide-equivalent pages. We measure success in how few of those pages a director actually needs to read.
Cloud strategy position paper
A thesis covering ambition, guardrails, and the measurable outcomes you're willing to sign up to.
// 20–28 pages · board-ready
Workload disposition map
Every workload placed into one 6R cohort with unit economics, complexity, and dependency assessed.
// live sheet · dependency graph
Three-year TCO & value model
Eight-category cost model with scenarios and post-launch variance tracker built in from day one.
// sensitivity-tested · live
Landing zone reference architecture
A blueprint your platform team can extend. Not a hundred-page slideware binder nobody opens twice.
// Terraform · IaC · opinionated
Migration wave plan
Sequenced waves with a credible stop-loss at every gate — and a re-plan trigger nobody is afraid to pull.
// risk-graded · exit criteria per wave
Governance & CCoE blueprint
The operating cadence and accountabilities that keep the strategy alive after the launch party ends.
// rituals · decision rights · funding
Get the cloud strategy your CFO will defend.
Six weeks from kickoff to board paper. Tell us the ambition, the estate shape, and the constraints — we'll take it from there.