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What is the current IT architecture in the company, and what are
the key components of the infrastructure, applications, management
services?
What type of Cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) are well suited to
cover these needs?
3.7.3
Changes that Cloud services will bring to the company
The introduction of Cloud services can bring changes at different levels of
the organisation, and the changes will impact both traditional roles and
responsibilities of IT and the other departments. Among other things, is it
possible that through the usage of Cloud services, the IT decision making
starts to shift away from the the traditional IT department into the hands of
users and other departments.
Cloud services primarily provide standardised services, thus their
introduction often means that existing business processes must be adapted
and sometimes restricted in comparison to the existing services with respect
to the needs of specific departments. This aspect shows that estimating the
business value of Cloud services solely on the basis of cost will usually be
inadequate. It is therefore necessary, next to an honest assessment of the
costs, to communicate the expected improvements to the different groups
involved according to their specific needs. Further effects can result from
the individual company situation, and must be specifically identified.
Experiences with offshoring and outsourcing have highlighted the absolute
necessity of transferring knowledge through proper knowledge
management. This must be understood beyond purely technical aspects,
since there is much implicit, non‐codifiable knowledge in a company, that
also must somehow find appropriate expression for transfer when far‐
reaching changes take place.
The following are examples of the types of searching questions that arise
with the adoption of Cloud computing:
How will we organise our processes with the usage of Cloud
computing?
How can we utilise the new possibilities to best benefit our
company?
Can we create more advantages for our customers?
All of these aspects should flow into the domain of change management.
This has the task of implementing measures and specific activities to ensure
