Thinking of.Building a Microsoft Cloud Operating Model? Ask the Smart Questions

Around the world the disruptive promises of the infamous dot com bubble of the late nineties and early noughties are finally being realised. The current generation of IT that had cloud enter everyday vocabulary has businesses embracing digital transformation and digital enabled business methods. As a result, a new requirement has emerged for a different kind of Operating Model – a Cloud Operating Model (COM). As we will explain, the Cloud Operating Model is the new lingua franca for the business and IT teams to communicate and collaborate and get down to work. The digital agenda is commanding CEO attention worldwide, and its outcomes will set the scene for high-speed business change over the next decade. 
The balance between agility and control is a key theme in this book, and we will advocate the necessity of (some) sacrifice of control in order to enable the agility now demanded by a business competing in a digital world.

"Uncontrolled and unabated procurement of IT solutions is not a good long-term strategy. Control is still a necessity within larger, structured organisations.

A cloud operating model as described within this book seeks to achieve the best of both worlds. The agility demanded by the business with the control needed by the IT teams."   Mark Smith, Senior Director, Azure + AI, Microsoft

“Building a Microsoft Cloud Operating Model is a must read for leaders looking to understand how the rules of the game have changed, and importantly how to unlock the value that comes with the right model, great technologies and engaged people.

I love the fact it’s practical and serves as a useful guide for those driving change and innovation in their business.” Clare Barclay, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft UK

“In the early 1990s I was asked to build on two decades of international business management experience to take on a global IT leadership role – my brief was to draw on my business insight to transform the work of a very techie inheritance. Twenty five years on, well into the era of ‘the cloud’, this challenge still remains, alas, across much of our industry.

The title ‘Building a Microsoft Cloud Operating Model’ suggests a technical agenda, but in reality the four authors draw on their wide experience to provide the means for business (CXO) leadership (who should read this book) to bring themselves into effective partnership with their IT (CIO) colleagues at a crucial time – and vice versa!

This blending is genuinely vital now that so much powerful new technology - and Cloud-rooted capabilities, such as AI, are transforming how business can and will be done. The chapter on Agile in particular is an excellent read!” Dr Richard Sykes, Chairman, Cloud industry Forum