Cloud migration offers various benefits to organizations, so they are adopting cloud services very quickly. But before moving to the cloud, it is necessary to evaluate your cloud readiness; this is where the cloud maturity model enters.

The cloud maturity model (CMM) is a framework for assessing cloud readiness. It ensures your applications are ready to move to the cloud and guides you through a structured path to achieving cloud maturity.

This article will provide you with the best practices for the cloud maturity model, helping you take your cloud adoption journey to the next level.

Top 7 Best Practices for Cloud Maturity Model

Let’s move directly to the best practices that help you to leverage the benefits of cloud maturity model:

1. Set up Cloud Adoption Objectives

If you are reading this article, your motive must be adequate cloud adoption and achieving a high cloud maturity level. Besides this motive, you should set clear, viable, and achievable goals for cloud adoption. The cloud maturity model can help you reach your goals when you define them properly.

Here are three components or steps to determine your cloud adoption strategy:

• Clarify Motivations
• Determine Your Business Goals
• Develop a Business Case

2. Identify Your Cloud Maturity Level

Knowing where you stand now will help you plan your next move accordingly. Before you take any action, review these stages and determine which stage of cloud maturity your business is in.

Level: 0 - No Cloud Readiness (Legacy)
At this stage, organizations are not using the cloud at all and depend on outdated systems.
Level: 1 - Initial Readiness (ad hoc)
In this stage of the cloud maturity model, the company may migrate its few systems to the cloud. It has some experience initiating this move.
Level: 2 - Repeatable, opportunistic
When a company is opportunistic, it establishes its IT and procurement procedures to utilize cloud services.
Level: 3 - Systematic and Documented
Many organizations skip this step and directly jump to the fifth stage using technology solutions. In this stage, the company implemented a process to manage its cloud services.
Level: 4 - Measured
At this point, the company uses cloud applications in its daily operations. It shows the wide use of this cloud-native application in organizations.
Level: 5 - Optimized
Level 5 is the highest cloud maturity level, where a company uses a flexible and compatible cloud system.

3. Pick a Cloud Maturity Model

There are different cloud maturity models available to help you with cloud adoption. Choosing the suitable model is up to you. If you are new to the cloud, you can outsource cloud managed services to help you throughout your cloud adoption and even your whole cloud management.

Different Cloud Maturity Models:

4. Develop a Roadmap to Cloud Migration

Based on cloud assessment, a roadmap involves timelines, required resources, and different projects aligned with other areas. Organizations must design a roadmap for migrating their resources to the cloud.

5. Follow Governance and Compliance

To manage cloud operations effectively, the company should define roles and responsibilities and have a flexible decision-making process that can improve with technical changes. To ensure everything runs smoothly, create regulations for security, control access, and data privacy. Align your cloud activities with industry regulations like HIPAA and PCI-DSS and conduct regular compliance checks to reduce risks. Avoid cloud adoption pitfalls like bill shock and vendor lock-in.

6. Manage and Optimize your Cloud Environment

After following all best practices for the cloud maturity model, the end activity is to manage and optimize your cloud environment. Organizations should continuously maintain and optimize their cloud resources. It involves tracking performance, managing and reducing cloud expenses, and working on improvement areas.

End Note

A successful cloud maturity model needs careful planning, assessment, and implementation. These six best practices for the cloud maturity model let you embark on your cloud adoption journey. However, these best practices are not limited to these six activities; you must continuously evaluate your cloud resources and activities. You must select a suitable cloud maturity model that can align with your organization’s goals.

If you are unsure which model to pick and how to manage cloud adoption, you can always outsource cloud-managed services from renowned cloud service providers, who are waiting to partner with you in your cloud management.

Happy Clouding!!