When you watch companies move their technology to the cloud, you start to notice they all go through the same stages.

First, they migrate everything by basically moving their existing systems to Amazon, Microsoft, or Google's servers without changing much about how things work.

Then teams start trying out new cloud features and everyone gets excited because they can build and release new things faster than before.

But after a while, things get messy because different teams have their systems spread out across different cloud providers, everyone sets up security in their own way, and the monthly bills keep surprising people.

Different groups start using different tools to manage their stuff, and nobody can see everything that's running anymore, which means what felt like progress starts feeling more like trying to juggle too many things at once. This messy stage is where most companies are stuck right now, and many of them don't even realize they've stopped moving forward.

Moving past this stage means making real decisions about bringing everything together and setting up some rules that everyone follows.

Security needs to work the same way everywhere and check itself automatically instead of relying on someone to manually review everything. One banking company started tracking which team owned what and found out they were wasting $200,000 every year on practice servers that nobody remembered to turn off.

Cost efficiency works the same way because when you set up systems to grow and shrink based on what you actually need, turn off practice environments when people aren't using them, and adjust your server sizes based on real numbers instead of guesses, you can save a lot without changing any of your actual solutions.

The final stage is where the cloud actually helps your company do things your competitors can't instead of just being a place to put your programs.

The difference between being stuck and moving forward isn't really about technology but about aligning the technology with how your business needs to use it.

There are vast options in the market now, so many in fact that we see analysis paralysis. It’s important to go back to basics and understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Then you need a team to bring forth the simplest solution that can achieve your goals.

If you can't easily answer questions about everything running in your cloud, or your bills keep changing in ways you don't expect, or different teams are all doing security differently, you're probably stuck in that messy stage. What matters is whether you actually have a plan with specific steps and someone responsible for making it happen, or if you keep telling yourself you'll deal with it later while it slowly becomes just how things are.

Until next week,

—Jared 

Text Me: 314.806.3912

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