Markdown Editor

Cloud Adoption Strategy Template (Microsoft CAF, AWS CAF)

Motivations and outcomes, readiness, operating model, landing zone approach, 7 Rs portfolio, governance, skills, FinOps, roadmap, CAF mappings

ArsitekturLengkapMicrosoft Cloud Adoption Framework (7 phases); AWS CAF (6 perspectives); Google Cloud Adoption Frameworkcloudadoptionstrategy

Cara menggunakan: Use it when an organisation plans or resets its move to public cloud and needs one decision document for executives and platform teams. Fill the motivations and measurable outcomes with the sponsor first, then the readiness assessment. The main pitfall is promising cost savings with no baseline, owner or date.

Pratinjau

Cloud Adoption Strategy: [Organisation or programme name]

Strategy and plan for adopting public cloud across an organisation: motivations and business outcomes, current state and readiness, the cloud operating model, the landing zone and platform approach, the workload portfolio and its migration and modernisation dispositions (the 7 Rs), governance, security and compliance, skills and organisation, the financial model and FinOps, the roadmap and the risks. Mapping tables link each section to the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (seven phases: Strategy, Plan, Ready, Adopt, Govern, Secure, Manage, as published in August 2026), the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (six perspectives, whitepaper of 22 November 2021) and the Google Cloud Adoption Framework (four themes and three maturity phases). Provider-neutral. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

FieldValue
Document ID[CAS-001]
Programme[Cloud adoption programme name]
Version[0.1]
Status[Draft / In review / Approved / Superseded]
Owner[@cloud-programme-lead]
Executive sponsor[@cio-or-cto]
Approvers/reviewers[@cfo-delegate], [@ciso], [@enterprise-architect], [@head-of-operations]
Target provider(s)[Primary provider], [Secondary provider, if any]
Estate in scope[Business units, data centres, number of applications]
Planning horizon[YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY-MM-DD]
Classification[Internal / Confidential]
Last updatedYYYY-MM-DD
Next reviewYYYY-MM-DD

Approvals

RoleNameDecisionDate
Executive sponsor[@name][Approve / Approve with conditions / Reject]YYYY-MM-DD
Finance[@name][Decision]YYYY-MM-DD
Security and risk[@name][Decision]YYYY-MM-DD
Enterprise architecture[@name][Decision]YYYY-MM-DD
Operations[@name][Decision]YYYY-MM-DD

Revision history

VersionDateAuthorChange summary
0.1YYYY-MM-DD[@name]First draft for sponsor review
0.2YYYY-MM-DD[@name]Example: Readiness assessment results and portfolio dispositions added
1.0YYYY-MM-DD[@name]Example: Approved by the steering committee; funding for year 1 released

Contents

1. Motivations and business outcomes

1.1 Motivations

State the triggers and motivations that make cloud adoption a priority now. Separate critical business events, which carry a date, from longer-term innovation goals, which carry a value. Rank them, because they drive the sequencing in section 10.

IDMotivationTypeTrigger dateSponsor
MOT-001 (Example)Exit the leased data centre when the contract endsCritical business eventYYYY-MM-DD@cfo
MOT-002 (Example)Shorten time to launch new digital productsInnovationn/a@chief-digital-officer
MOT-003 (Example)Meet recovery objectives for tier 1 servicesRisk reductionYYYY-MM-DD@cro
[MOT-NNN][Motivation][Type][Date][@owner]

1.2 Business outcomes and measures

Express each outcome as a measurable change against a baseline. Each outcome needs an owner outside IT where possible, a baseline measured before migration starts and a target date.

IDOutcomeMeasureBaselineTargetDateOwner
OUT-001 (Example)Lower infrastructure run costAnnual infrastructure cost per active customer[Value][Value]YYYY-MM-DD@cfo
OUT-002 (Example)Faster deliveryLead time from commit to production for tier 2 apps[14 days][1 day]YYYY-MM-DD@head-of-engineering
OUT-003 (Example)ResilienceShare of tier 1 services with a tested RTO of 1 hour or less[20 %][100 %]YYYY-MM-DD@head-of-operations
[OUT-NNN][Outcome][Measure][Baseline][Target]YYYY-MM-DD[@owner]

1.3 Strategic principles

Write five to eight principles that settle recurring debates before they start. Each one should rule something out.

  • Example: Managed services before self-managed software, unless an exception is approved by the architecture board.
  • Example: One primary provider; a second provider only for a named regulatory or commercial reason.
  • Example: Every workload enters cloud through the landing zone; no accounts, subscriptions or projects outside it.
  • Example: Migrate first and modernise after, except where section 5 records a reason to refactor during the move.
  • [Principle]

2. Current state and readiness

2.1 Estate summary

ItemValueSource
Data centres and hosting contractsExample: 2 sites; site A lease ends YYYY-MM-DDFacilities contracts
Applications in scopeExample: 310 applications, 74 business criticalValidated portfolio, section 5
Servers and storageExample: 2,100 virtual machines, 180 physical hosts, 1.4 PBDiscovery tool export YYYY-MM-DD
Existing cloud useExample: 46 unmanaged accounts and subscriptions, 9 SaaS platformsBilling records
Licences with mobility constraints[Database, operating system and middleware licences]Licence register
Network connectivity[Current WAN, internet breakout, existing cloud links]Network team

2.2 Readiness assessment

Rate readiness on evidence. Use the same five areas as the operating model so that each gap maps to a workstream.

AreaCurrent stateRating (1 to 5)GapAction ID
Business and strategy (Example)Outcomes agreed for 2 of 5 business units2No shared business caseACT-001
People and skills (Example)6 certified engineers, no platform team2Platform engineering capacityACT-004
Governance and finance (Example)No cloud policy, costs not allocated1Policies, tagging, showbackACT-006
Platform and operations (Example)Manual provisioning, on-premises monitoring only2Landing zone, observabilityACT-002
Security (Example)Strong identity provider, no cloud security baseline3Guardrails, loggingACT-003
[Area][State][1 to 5][Gap][ACT-NNN]

Rating scale: 1 no capability, 2 ad hoc, 3 defined, 4 managed and measured, 5 optimised. Record the date and the people who rated each area, and repeat the assessment at every major roadmap milestone.

2.3 Readiness actions

IDActionCloses gap inOwnerDue
ACT-001 (Example)Agree outcomes and a shared business case with every business unit in scopeBusiness and strategy@cloud-programme-leadYYYY-MM-DD
ACT-002 (Example)Build the landing zone and central observabilityPlatform and operations@platform-leadYYYY-MM-DD
ACT-003 (Example)Define the cloud security baseline, guardrails and central loggingSecurity@security-architectYYYY-MM-DD
ACT-004 (Example)Form the platform team and start the learning plan in section 8.2People and skills@head-of-engineeringYYYY-MM-DD
ACT-005 (Example)Review licence mobility for databases and middleware (RSK-004)Platform and operations@procurementYYYY-MM-DD
ACT-006 (Example)Publish cloud policies, the tagging standard and monthly showbackGovernance and finance@finops-leadYYYY-MM-DD
[ACT-NNN][Action][Area][@owner]YYYY-MM-DD

3. Cloud operating model

3.1 Operating model choice

Choose the model that matches the organisation's appetite for central control versus team autonomy, and say why the alternatives were rejected.

ModelDescriptionChosenReason
Centralised operationsA central team builds and runs all cloud resources[Yes / No][Reason]
Enterprise platform with workload autonomyA platform team provides the landing zone and paved roads; workload teams build and run their own services inside guardrails[Yes / No]Example: Matches product team structure; keeps policy central
DecentralisedEach business unit runs its own cloud estate[Yes / No][Reason]
[Hybrid variant][Description][Yes / No][Reason]

3.2 Responsibilities

CapabilityCloud centre of excellencePlatform teamWorkload teamSecurityFinance
Cloud policy and standardsACIRC
Landing zone build and runCA/RICI
Account, subscription or project vendingIA/RR (request)CI
Workload architecture and operationCCA/RCI
Security monitoring and responseICRAI
Budgets, showback and optimisationCRRIA

R responsible, A accountable, C consulted, I informed.

3.3 Interaction model

The diagram shows how policy, guardrails and money flow to the platform team, and how vended environments and feedback flow between the platform and workload teams.

4. Landing zone and platform approach

The landing zone is the governed foundation into which every workload is deployed: resource hierarchy, identity, network, security baseline, logging, policy as code and the vending process. Record the strategic choices here; the full design belongs in the Landing zone design (architecture/landing-zone-design).

DecisionChoiceRationaleDecision ID
Implementation approach (Example)Provider reference implementation, customised through IaCFaster start; known upgrade pathDEC-002
Hierarchy pattern (Example)Separate platform and workload branches, environments split at account, subscription or project levelClear policy inheritanceDEC-003
Network topology (Example)Hub and spoke with central egress inspectionMatches inspection requirementsDEC-004
Identity (Example)Federation from the existing identity provider, no local cloud usersSingle joiner, mover and leaver processDEC-005
Environment vending (Example)Self-service request through the service portal, automated provisioning in under one daySupports workload autonomyDEC-006
[Decision][Choice][Rationale][DEC-NNN]

List the paved-road platform services the platform team will offer, with the date each becomes available, because the migration waves in section 10 depend on them.

ServiceDescriptionAvailable fromOwner
Container platform (Example)Managed Kubernetes with standard ingress and observabilityYYYY-MM-DD@platform-lead
Managed relational database (Example)Standard configurations with backup and encryption defaultsYYYY-MM-DD@platform-lead
CI/CD templates (Example)Pipeline templates with policy checks and artefact signingYYYY-MM-DD@devex-lead
[Service][Description]YYYY-MM-DD[@owner]

5. Workload portfolio and dispositions

5.1 Disposition vocabulary (7 Rs)

Use the seven migration strategies described in AWS Prescriptive Guidance. They are provider-neutral in practice; the other frameworks use similar categories under different names.

StrategyMeaning in this programmeTypical use
RetireDecommission or archive; no cloud targetLow value, duplicate or unused applications
RetainKeep in the source environment for now; revisit at a set dateRegulatory, hardware or dependency constraints
RehostMove to cloud virtual machines without changing the applicationTime-boxed exits, large volumes
RelocateMove at hypervisor or platform level to a cloud version of the same platformLarge virtualised estates with a compatible cloud service
RepurchaseReplace with a different product, usually SaaSCommodity capabilities such as HR or ticketing
ReplatformMove with targeted optimisation, such as a managed databaseReduce operational effort without redesign
Refactor or re-architectRedesign to use cloud-native capabilitiesStrong business case for agility or scale

5.2 Portfolio summary

DispositionApplicationsShareNotes
Retire (Example)4214 %Confirmed with business owners
Retain (Example)186 %Mainframe and plant systems; review YYYY-MM-DD
Rehost (Example)12139 %Mostly in waves 2 to 6
Relocate (Example)3511 %Virtualised cluster in site A
Repurchase (Example)227 %SaaS replacements
Replatform (Example)5217 %Database moves to managed services
Refactor (Example)206 %Customer-facing products only
Total (Example)310100 %

Record per-application dispositions, scoring and target states in the Modernization assessment (architecture/modernization-assessment) and the sequencing in the Migration wave plan (project/migration-wave-plan).

5.3 Cloud-native and new workloads

New products should start in cloud on the paved road. State which patterns are preferred for new builds (for example serverless functions, containers or managed data services), which require an architecture review, and how teams request an exception.

6. Governance

6.1 Governance bodies

BodyPurposeMembersCadence
Steering committee (Example)Funding, priorities, roadmap changesSponsor, finance, business unit headsMonthly
Architecture board (Example)Standards, exceptions, platform roadmapEnterprise and platform architects, securityFortnightly
Cloud centre of excellence (Example)Policy drafting, enablement, metricsCross-functional core teamWeekly
[Body][Purpose][Members][Cadence]

6.2 Cloud policies

IDPolicy statementEnforcementOwner
POL-001 (Example)Resources are deployed only in approved regionsPreventive guardrail at hierarchy root@security-architect
POL-002 (Example)Every resource carries the mandatory cost tagsDeny on create, weekly compliance report@finops-lead
POL-003 (Example)Data classified confidential is encrypted with customer-managed keysDetective control, remediation within 30 days@ciso
[POL-NNN][Statement][Preventive / Detective / Manual review][@owner]

6.3 Exception process

Describe how a team requests a policy exception, who decides, how long an exception lasts and where it is recorded. Every exception carries an expiry date and a named risk owner.

7. Security and compliance

7.1 Security strategy

Summarise the security approach in a few statements: identity as the primary control plane, least privilege, encryption by default, central logging, continuous posture management and incident response that covers cloud control-plane events. Link to the Security architecture (security/security-architecture) for the detailed design.

7.2 Shared responsibility

LayerProvider responsibilityOur responsibilityNotes
Physical facilities and hardwareFullNoneProvider attestations reviewed annually
Virtualisation and managed service runtimeFull for managed servicesConfigurationVaries by service model
Operating systems on virtual machinesNoneFullPatch baseline applies
Identity, access and dataNoneFullAlways ours
[Layer][Provider][Ours][Notes]

7.3 Compliance obligations

IDObligationSourceImpact on designOwner
CMP-001 (Example)Personal data of EU residents stays in approved regionsData protection law and contractsRegion policy POL-001@dpo
CMP-002 (Example)Payment card data isolated from other workloadsCard industry standardDedicated hierarchy branch@ciso
[CMP-NNN][Obligation][Law, standard or contract][Design impact][@owner]

8. Skills and organisation

8.1 Role changes

Current roleFuture rolePeople affectedChange approach
Server administrator (Example)Platform engineer or site reliability engineer14Training path, pairing in waves 1 to 3
Network engineer (Example)Cloud network engineer6Certification, landing zone build
Database administrator (Example)Data platform engineer5Managed database operations training
[Role][Future role][Number][Approach]

8.2 Learning plan

AudienceLearning objectiveFormatTarget dateMeasure
All engineers (Example)Cloud fundamentals and landing zone usageOnline course and internal workshopYYYY-MM-DD90 % completion
Platform team (Example)Advanced networking, IaC and policy as codeInstructor-led and hands-on labsYYYY-MM-DDProfessional certification
Leaders and finance (Example)Cloud economics and FinOpsBriefing seriesYYYY-MM-DDAttendance, showback in use
[Audience][Objective][Format]YYYY-MM-DD[Measure]

8.3 Change management

Describe how the programme communicates with staff, how concerns are raised and answered, and how early successes are recognised. Name the change lead and the channels used.

9. Financial model and FinOps

9.1 Business case summary

Summarise the multi-year cost comparison and link to the full TCO analysis (architecture/tco-analysis). Include dual-running costs during migration, exit costs and the cost of training and partners.

Cost elementYear 1Year 2Year 3Notes
Cloud consumption (Example)[Value][Value][Value]Grows with waves
Dual running on premises (Example)[Value][Value][Value]Falls after site exit
Migration services and tools (Example)[Value][Value][Value]Partner and discovery tooling
Training and change (Example)[Value][Value][Value]Section 8
Avoided cost (Example)[Value][Value][Value]Hardware refresh and lease

9.2 Funding and allocation

ItemApproach
Platform costsExample: Funded centrally for two years, then allocated by consumption share
Workload costsExample: Shown back to business units monthly, charged back from year 2
Commitments and discountsExample: Bought centrally after three months of stable usage, reviewed quarterly
Budget alertsExample: Alert at 80 % and 100 % of monthly budget per environment

9.3 FinOps practice

Adopt the FinOps Framework phases (Inform, Optimize, Operate) from the FinOps Foundation. Name the FinOps lead, the review cadence and the reports each audience receives. Run recurring reviews with the FinOps cost review template (ops/finops-cost-review).

10. Roadmap

PhaseScopeExit criteriaTarget date
PH-1 Foundation (Example)Strategy approved, landing zone live, first platform servicesSecurity baseline verified, vending in productionYYYY-MM-DD
PH-2 Pilot (Example)Three low-risk applicationsRunbooks proven, rollback testedYYYY-MM-DD
PH-3 Scale migration (Example)Waves 1 to 6Site A empty, contracts closedYYYY-MM-DD
PH-4 Optimise (Example)Rightsizing, commitments, modernisationOutcome targets OUT-001 to OUT-003 metYYYY-MM-DD
[PH-N][Scope][Criteria]YYYY-MM-DD

11. Risks and assumptions

IDRiskLikelihoodImpactResponseOwner
RSK-001 (Example)Data centre exit date slips because discovery is incompleteMediumHighFunded discovery sprint, weekly dependency review@migration-lead
RSK-002 (Example)Skills gap slows landing zone deliveryHighMediumPartner pairing with knowledge transfer milestones@platform-lead
RSK-003 (Example)Cloud costs exceed forecast during dual runningMediumHighBudgets, alerts, monthly FinOps review@finops-lead
RSK-004 (Example)Licence terms prevent moving key databasesMediumHighLicence review before wave planning@procurement
[RSK-NNN][Risk][L / M / H][L / M / H][Response][@owner]
IDAssumptionValidated byDate
ASM-001 (Example)Network bandwidth to cloud is sufficient for replication of 40 TB per weekNetwork testYYYY-MM-DD
[ASM-NNN][Assumption][Method]YYYY-MM-DD

Track project-level risks, issues and dependencies in the RAID log (project/raid-log).

12. Decisions and traceability

OutcomeMotivationDecisionsActionsRoadmap phaseMeasure reported in
OUT-001 (Example)MOT-001DEC-002, DEC-006ACT-002, ACT-006PH-3, PH-4Monthly FinOps report
OUT-002 (Example)MOT-002DEC-006ACT-004PH-2, PH-4Engineering metrics dashboard
OUT-003 (Example)MOT-003DEC-004ACT-003PH-3DR test reports
[OUT-NNN][MOT-NNN][DEC-NNN][ACT-NNN][PH-N][Report]

Record significant decisions as architecture decision records using the ADR template (architecture/adr-full).

13. Framework mappings

13.1 Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure

As published on Microsoft Learn (overview updated August 2026), Azure adoption is organised in seven phases. Migrating, modernising and building cloud-native workloads are all covered under Adopt; older material may still show them as separate methodologies. Microsoft also publishes scenarios that build on this foundation, such as AI adoption, AI agents, data platform and sovereignty.

CAF phaseKey question in CAFSections of this document
StrategyWhat should adoption look like?1, 9.1
PlanHow will we prepare for adoption?2, 5, 8, 10
ReadyHow will we build the landing zone?4
AdoptHow will we migrate, modernise and build workloads?5, 10
GovernHow will we control the environment?6, 9.2
SecureHow will we protect the environment?7
ManageHow will we operate and optimise over time?3, 9.3

13.2 AWS Cloud Adoption Framework

The AWS CAF groups foundational capabilities into six perspectives.

AWS CAF perspectiveFocusSections of this document
BusinessCloud investment linked to business outcomes1, 9.1
PeopleCulture, organisation structure, leadership and workforce3, 8
GovernanceOrchestrating initiatives, maximising benefit, limiting risk6, 9.2, 11
PlatformScalable hybrid platform, modernising workloads, cloud-native builds4, 5
SecurityConfidentiality, integrity and availability of data and workloads7
OperationsDelivering cloud services at the level the business needs3, 9.3

13.3 Google Cloud Adoption Framework

The Google Cloud Adoption Framework whitepaper assesses maturity across four themes (Learn, Lead, Scale, Secure) and three phases (Tactical, Strategic, Transformational), which together form its Cloud Maturity Scale; workstreams are called epics.

ThemeFocusSections of this document
LearnUpskilling staff and using external expertise8
LeadExecutive mandate and cross-functional teams1, 3, 6
ScaleManaged services and automation that cut manual effort4, 5, 9.3
SecureProtection through identity-centric, layered security7

Use the three phases as the rating scale in section 2.2 if the organisation prefers the Google maturity language: Tactical (ratings 1 and 2), Strategic (rating 3), Transformational (ratings 4 and 5).

14. Glossary and references

14.1 Glossary

TermMeaning
Landing zoneGoverned, pre-configured cloud foundation into which workloads are deployed
Cloud centre of excellenceCross-functional team that sets cloud standards and enables adoption
Paved roadSupported, pre-approved way of building and running a common type of workload
VendingAutomated provisioning of a governed account, subscription or project on request
Showback / chargebackReporting costs to consumers / billing them to consumers
7 RsSeven migration strategies: retire, retain, rehost, relocate, repurchase, replatform, refactor
Dual runningPeriod when both source and cloud environments are paid for

14.2 References

ReferenceVersion or dateUse
Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, learn.microsoft.com/azure/cloud-adoption-frameworkOverview updated August 2026Phase mapping, section 13.1
An Overview of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, AWS whitepaper22 November 2021Perspective mapping, section 13.2
The Google Cloud Adoption Framework, Google Cloud whitepaperAs published by Google CloudTheme mapping, section 13.3
AWS Prescriptive Guidance, Guide for AWS large migrations: About the migration strategiesCurrent web edition7 Rs vocabulary, section 5.1
FinOps Framework, FinOps FoundationCurrent web editionPhases, section 9.3
[Internal policy or standard][Version][Use]

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with the publicly documented phases of the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, the six perspectives of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, the themes and maturity phases of the Google Cloud Adoption Framework, the seven migration strategies described in AWS Prescriptive Guidance and the phases of the FinOps Framework. The framework, phase, perspective and theme names belong to their publishers and are used for mapping only. This template is original text written for this collection and reproduces no text from these sources. Check the current official version of each framework before use; the provider pages are updated frequently. Template licence: MIT.

Templat terkait