Cloud Strategy
Define the right cloud path before migration, cost and operating complexity start moving in the wrong direction.
Why it matters
Cloud adoption stalls when legacy infrastructure, regulatory constraints and financial pressures create conflicting demands. Teams debate between lift-and-shift approaches and modernisation, or between cloud-first strategies and workload-by-workload evaluation. Some applications belong in public cloud; others suit hybrid or private cloud better. Budget models clash with agility goals. Without clear strategy, organisations default to ad-hoc decisions — moving workloads piecemeal without a coherent plan, discovering hidden dependencies mid-migration, over-paying for cloud resources because workloads were never optimised, or building fragmented multi-cloud estates that become impossible to govern.
SCC delivers Cloud Strategy as a structured advisory service. We assess your current infrastructure, workload profiles and business constraints to define a migration pathway that aligns cloud adoption with your financial model and operational reality. We build financial models that show real TCO across different scenarios, identify which workloads belong in which cloud environments, and produce a prioritised, sequenced roadmap that your teams can actually execute. This turns cloud adoption from a high-risk, open-ended programme into a governed, predictable transition with clear outcomes and measurable ROI.
How it works
Step 1
Assess the current estate
We conduct a structured review of your infrastructure, applications, workloads and dependencies. You provide access to configuration management databases, virtualisation platforms and application owners. We build a detailed asset inventory that forms the foundation for all downstream decisions.
Step 2
Evaluate platform suitability
For each workload, we evaluate suitability for public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud or on-premises retention. Assessment criteria include performance requirements, security constraints, compliance needs, licence models, latency sensitivity and cost optimisation potential. The outcome is a suitability matrix that shows which workloads belong where.
Step 3
Model financial outcomes
We build TCO models that compare your current on-premises baseline against multiple cloud scenarios. Models include licence costs, infrastructure, operations labour, cloud consumption costs and migration effort. You see the true cost of each pathway, including one-time migration investment and ongoing operational savings or increases.
Step 4
Define migration pathways
Based on suitability and financial analysis, we define a phased migration plan that sequences workloads into releases that respect dependencies, business priorities and team capacity. Each phase includes risk assessment, resource requirements and success metrics so you can track progress and manage change.
Step 5
Deliver an actionable roadmap
We produce a detailed roadmap document that your teams can action immediately. This includes workload sequencing, migration approach for each phase, resource requirements, timeline, financial impact and known constraints. The roadmap becomes your single source of truth for cloud adoption, reducing scope creep and enabling clear accountability.
Partners
SCC’s cloud strategy work is informed by deep vendor relationships and hands-on experience across multiple cloud platforms. Our partnerships ensure recommendations are vendor-agnostic and grounded in your actual use case, not vendor preference.
Deep certified partnership with Azure across infrastructure, databases and application services. Our strategy work draws on insights from 800+ Azure migrations across the EMEA region.
AWS Advanced Partner with hands-on experience across EC2, RDS, Lambda and data services. Our AWS engagements span financial services, public sector and enterprise customers across multiple compliance regimes.
Google Cloud Partner with focus on data analytics, machine learning and hybrid cloud connectivity. Our GCP work includes workload optimisation for cost and performance across enterprise organisations.
SCC is IBM’s largest UK partner and a two-time winner of UK Technology Partner of the Year. Supporting 175+ IBM customers across industries, SCC delivers integrated expertise across enterprise AI, cloud, automation and infrastructure. The IBM portfolio through SCC includes watsonx for enterprise…
F5 delivers integrated application delivery and security services spanning load balancing, API protection, performance optimisation and multi-cloud traffic management. SCC helps organisations implement F5 solutions that unify application delivery across distributed infrastructure, from traditional…
Awards and accreditations
SCC holds cloud and infrastructure accreditations that validate expertise in cloud strategy, architecture and delivery.
Magna at felis risus mollis commodo maecenas amet urna dolor. Vitae diam purus risus ornare. Lorem id et velit eu viverra. Commodo mi vulputate cursus curabitur. Id dictumst tincidunt integer eget eu proin pretium.
Magna at felis risus mollis commodo maecenas amet urna dolor. Vitae diam purus risus ornare. Lorem id et velit eu viverra. Commodo mi vulputate cursus curabitur. Id dictumst tincidunt integer eget eu proin pretium.
Magna at felis risus mollis commodo maecenas amet urna dolor. Vitae diam purus risus ornare. Lorem id et velit eu viverra. Commodo mi vulputate cursus curabitur. Id dictumst tincidunt integer eget eu proin pretium.
Specialists
Specialist 1
Magna at felis risus mollis commodo maecenas amet urna dolor. Vitae diam purus risus ornare. Lorem id et velit eu viverra. Commodo mi vulputate cursus curabitur. Id dictumst tincidunt integer eget eu proin pretium.
Specialist 2
Magna at felis risus mollis commodo maecenas amet urna dolor. Vitae diam purus risus ornare. Lorem id et velit eu viverra. Commodo mi vulputate cursus curabitur. Id dictumst tincidunt integer eget eu proin pretium.
Ready to define your cloud direction
Cloud strategy work turns adoption from guesswork to governance. If you’re planning first migration or evolving a multi-cloud estate, a clear roadmap saves cost, reduces risk and accelerates delivery.
FAQs
Why is cloud strategy needed if we know which workloads we want to move?
Teams often think they know which workloads should move, but miss critical dependencies, licence constraints or regulatory barriers. Cloud strategy work uncovers these early. It also models financial implications – what looks like a cost-saving workload migration can become cost-negative when licence models and cloud consumption patterns are understood. Strategy work distinguishes between intuitive assumptions and validated decisions.
Should every workload move to cloud?
No. Some workloads belong on-premises due to performance sensitivity, regulatory constraints, licence models or operational complexity. Others suit hybrid cloud where they split between public and private infrastructure. Cloud strategy’s role is to identify which workloads belong where, then sequence migration of workloads that genuinely benefit from cloud. This focus prevents wasteful migration of workloads that cost more in cloud than on-premises.
How do you evaluate cloud costs during strategy?
We build financial models that compare cloud scenarios against your on-premises baseline. Models include infrastructure, licence costs, operations labour and cloud consumption. We model different consumption patterns and optimisation states so you understand both best-case cloud cost and realistic cloud cost accounting for workloads that are not initially optimised. This prevents cost surprises after migration.
How long does cloud strategy work take?
Timescale depends on estate complexity and organisational readiness to provide information. A focused strategy engagement typically completes in 8-12 weeks. This includes assessment, modelling, roadmap definition and validation workshops. For larger, more complex estates or organisations with competing priorities, strategy can extend to 16-20 weeks.
What’s the output of cloud strategy work?
You receive a detailed strategy document that includes workload suitability assessment, financial models, phased migration roadmap, risk register and implementation guidance. This becomes your plan for cloud adoption – your teams use it to resource migration phases, manage dependencies and track progress. It’s not a high-level vision; it’s a detailed, actionable plan.