Cloud or Clown? How to Know If Your Enterprise Is Ready for the Cloud
Peter Newton
SVP, Cloud Consulting
You’ve read the success stories. You’ve sat through the sales pitches. You’ve heard “digital transformation” so many times that it’s practically tattooed on your frontal lobe. But the real question isn’t “Should we move to the cloud?”—that ship sailed years ago. It’s “Are we ready to move to the cloud?”
Spoiler alert: not every organization is.
Cloud migration sounds easy in theory, like replacing your light bulbs with energy-saving LEDs. In reality, it’s more like rewiring your entire house while keeping the lights on, the appliances running, and the coffee machine brewing (because you’ll need it). Before you buy into the hype or sign off on another vendor pitch promising “seamless transformation,” take a step back and ask, “Are we really prepared?”
Why “Lift and Shift” Rarely Lifts—or Shifts—Anything Useful
Let’s start by addressing a myth. You don’t just “lift and shift” your on-premises mess to the cloud and magically begin saving money. In fact, without the right planning, it’s more like “lift and grift,” where your cloud provider reaps the financial rewards of your poor architecture decisions.
According to Gartner, over 60 percent of cloud cost overruns are caused by “poor governance and lack of upfront planning.” Translation: you’re more likely to blow your budget on zombie resources (compute instances you forgot existed) and Cadillac instances (those overpowered VM sizes you never really needed) than you are to achieve “cloud efficiency.”
This brings us to the first stop on your cloud readiness journey.
Checkpoint #1: Do You Know What You Actually Have?
Because “We Think So” Isn’t a Strategy
If your IT team can’t produce a detailed asset inventory covering hardware, software, workloads, and interdependencies, you’re not ready. Full stop.
The Azure Cloud Readiness Framework, developed by Microsoft and validated by partners like NexusTek, stresses the importance of discovery and assessment as the foundational step. This includes:
- Inventorying workloads and identifying technical and business owners
- Mapping application dependencies (because nobody wants to explain why payroll went offline after a “quick” database move)
- Assessing performance baselines to understand resource needs
Best practice? Use automated discovery tools such as Azure Migrate or third-party platforms to avoid the “spreadsheet of doom” syndrome.
Checkpoint #2: Do You Have a Cloud Operating Model?
Hint: Your On-Premises SOPs Won’t Cut It
Moving to the cloud isn’t just a technology shift. It’s an operating model transformation. According to Forrester, enterprises that fail to define a cloud operating model upfront often experience:
- Increased security risks
- Shadow IT proliferation
- Poor financial management
Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework advises defining your governance, security, identity, and cost management models before you provision your first cloud resource.
Key questions to ask include:
- Who approves new workloads in the cloud?
- Who monitors cloud spending?
- How are security and compliance enforced?
- Who holds the keys to the kingdom (a.k.a. your root accounts)?
If the answers sound like “We’ll figure it out later,” stop now. Later is how you end up on the front page of “Worst Cloud Fails of the Year.”
Checkpoint #3: Have You Planned for Identity, Security, and Compliance?
Or Are You Banking on the “Trust Fall” Method?
The cloud is secure if you configure it correctly.
Spoiler alert: most don’t.
The Azure Security Benchmark and CIS Controls outline clear best practices:
- Zero Trust architecture (never trust, always verify)
- Least privilege access (your intern doesn’t need Global Admin, Karen)
- Security posture management (such as Microsoft Defender for Cloud)
If your security team still thinks of the firewall as the perimeter, you’re already behind.
Checkpoint #4: Are You Ready to Handle the Financial Reality of Cloud?
Cloud Isn’t Cheaper—It’s Different
Cloud cost models are dynamic and consumption-based. That’s fancy talk for “your bill changes every hour.”
IDC reports that 45 percent of cloud migrations result in higher than expected costs. Why? Because cloud economics is a different beast:
- You pay for what you provision, not just what you use
- Reserved Instances save money, but only if you commit wisely
- Right-sizing requires continuous optimization, not a one-time event
Tools such as Azure Cost Management + Billing help you gain visibility. But visibility without financial governance is like having headlights on a car with no brakes.
Checkpoint #5: Do You Have the Right People, Skills, and Partners?
Cloud Isn’t a One-Person Job—Sorry, Steve
Cloud migration requires cross-functional expertise:
- Architects to design your future state
- Security engineers to protect it
- FinOps practitioners to manage the spend
- DevOps pros to automate and scale
And unless you have a bench full of certified experts sitting idle (you don’t), you’ll need partners.
A partner like NexusTek—backed by 350+ engineers and 600+ Microsoft certifications—exists to augment your team’s capabilities, not replace them. Choose teams that deliver assessment services, landing zone design, and migration execution following frameworks such as Azure’s Cloud Adoption Framework and Well-Architected Framework.
Bonus Checkpoint: Are Your Executives Bought In?
Because IT Can’t Do This Alone
No cloud journey succeeds without executive sponsorship. If the C-suite isn’t aligned on funding, priorities, and outcomes, you’ll end up in the land of eternal POCs—where good ideas go to die.
The Verdict: Ready or Not?
Cloud readiness isn’t about checking a box or attending a vendor webinar. It’s about building a repeatable, governed, and secure approach to transforming your business through the cloud.
If you’re unsure about next steps, start with an independent readiness assessment. It’s better to hear the hard truths now than to explain to your CFO why your “cost-saving” cloud project turned into a budgetary black hole.
So … are you ready for the cloud, or are you just clowning around? Find out with a readiness assessment.
About the Author
Peter Newton
SVP, Cloud Consulting, NexusTek
Peter is a seasoned IT executive with a +25 year proven track record of leveraging cloud and AI technologies to drive operational excellence, enhance productivity, and deliver innovative solutions for high-profile clients. His expertise spans hybrid cloud IT services, platform engineering, and transformative technology implementations, with achievements including securing platform engineering contracts, guiding large-scale data modernizations, and increasing client satisfaction through effective cloud strategies.