Architect’s Playbook: Engage Business Stakeholders
This blog post outlines the key Stakeholders involved in a Cloud Migration and Deployment process and implementation of a successful Journey to Cloud migration with well designed cloud architecture.
Here's a summary of the main points:
Key Stakeholders:
- CEO (Chief
Executive Officer): Provides business objectives and ensures the
migration aligns with the company's vision.
- CLO
(Chief Legal Officer): Involved in compliance aspects and helps
implement automated policies within Azure.
- CFO
(Chief Financial Officer): Focuses on reducing IT costs and
understanding the value of services, justifying expenses related to cloud
services.
- COO
(Chief Operating Officer): Addresses the impact of migration on daily
operations and communicates changes to the organization.
- CTO
(Chief Technology Officer): Works with the IT department to determine
which applications can be migrated or need to remain on-premises.
Departmental Needs:
- Different
departments may require specific resources and applications,
necessitating a well-organized resource allocation strategy.
- Resource
groups can be created based on departmental needs or application
functionalities.
Migration Strategy:
- A
phased migration approach is recommended to identify and address
potential problems before completing the migration for the entire
organization.
Resource Organization:
- Organizations
can choose to organize resources by department or by the lifecycle of
resources, using tagging for better management.
Involving Business Stakeholders in Azure Cloud Migration
Successful cloud migration isn’t just a technical
initiative—it’s a business transformation. To ensure smooth planning,
deployment, and long-term adoption, it’s essential to involve key business
stakeholders from the beginning. These individuals offer critical insight into
company goals, compliance requirements, cost management, and operational
workflows.
Let’s take a closer look at the major stakeholders and their
roles in a cloud migration project.
Key Business Stakeholders:
- Chief
Executive Officer (CEO): Setting Vision and Direction
The CEO provides the strategic direction and overarching
business goals that the migration must support. Their involvement is crucial
during the planning phase to ensure that the Azure migration aligns with the
organization’s vision, priorities, and growth objectives. Gaining
their early buy-in also promotes cross-departmental support for the initiative.
- Chief
Legal Officer (CLO): Guarding Compliance and Governance
The CLO is responsible for overseeing regulatory
compliance. Their input is vital when implementing Azure services
like Azure Policy or Azure Blueprints, which
enforce organizational and legal requirements. Although the IT department will
manage the technical implementation, the CLO ensures that the policies reflect
current legal and compliance standards.
- Chief
Financial Officer (CFO): Maximizing Value and Cost Efficiency
The CFO's focus is on cost optimization and value
realization. During migration planning, it's important to provide the CFO
with a clear breakdown of service costs, usage patterns, and the value-added
features of Azure compared to both on-premises and alternative cloud
providers. This includes justifying the use of premium services (e.g., premium
storage or Azure AD Premium) over standard or less expensive options.
- Chief
Operating Officer (COO): Managing Operational Transitions
The COO ensures that business operations and workflows
continue to run smoothly during and after migration. Azure adoption will likely
impact day-to-day processes, so the COO should be involved early
to:
- Assess operational impacts
- Communicate changes to relevant teams
- Identify training needs resulting
from new workflows
A phased migration approach, where resources are migrated
gradually, helps the COO and their teams test changes, identify issues early,
and ensure a smooth transition across the organization.
- Chief
Technology Officer (CTO): Navigating Legacy and Custom Applications
The CTO plays a critical role in evaluating technical
feasibility—especially for legacy applications that may not migrate easily
to the cloud. Working closely with IT, the CTO will help determine whether to:
- Re-architect or modernize applications for the
cloud
- Maintain them on-premises for the remainder of
their lifecycle
This decision balances performance, cost, and long-term strategy.
Organizing Azure Resources Across Departments
Resource organization in Azure should reflect both technical
requirements and business structure. One way to approach this is by aligning
resources to departments, making it easier to manage permissions, costs,
and usage.
Using Subscriptions and Resource Groups
- Some organizations choose separate
subscriptions for each department.
- Others, like the example here, use shared
subscriptions with department-based resource groups:
Example Resource Group Setup:
- Accounting, HR, and Finance: Share a
resource group for applications and services specific to back-office
operations.
- Sales Team: Their resource group
includes web servers and SQL databases, following an Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS) model.
- IT Department: Manages a group
containing virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts—tools used
for internal infrastructure management.
Each resource group can include a storage account, but its use is
tailored to the department's needs. For instance, the IT department’s storage
may support backups or monitoring data, while the sales team’s storage supports
application-specific data.
Alternative Resource Organization Strategies
While organizing by department is intuitive, there are other
models that might suit your business better:
1. Organizing by Resource Lifecycle
Group resources by development stage (e.g.,
dev, test, production) rather than department. This can simplify CI/CD
workflows and reduce deployment risks.
2. Using Tags for Flexibility
Azure tags allow you to assign metadata to
resources, such as department ownership, project name, or cost center. This
enables flexible organization and reporting, especially when resources span
multiple teams or projects.
Example Tag: Department: HR, Environment:
Production, CostCenter: 10245
Effective Azure migration requires more than just technical planning—it demands
full collaboration with business stakeholders across leadership, legal,
finance, operations, and technology. By aligning cloud strategies with
organizational goals and structuring resources around real-world business
needs, your cloud architecture becomes a true enabler of innovation and
efficiency.
As your cloud environment grows, maintain stakeholder
engagement, refine your resource organization, and continually optimize for
performance, compliance, and cost.
