Some cloud services here and there

“It started slowly but surely. Gradually there were some small cloud services here and there. Suddenly we had O365. Then we had some services in Azure. And then I started to get a little bad feeling… .. »

This was the introduction to Sondre Andersen, IT manager in Sandefjord Municipality at Computerworld’s CIO forum in September 2021. You can see the entire presentation here.

Had to clean

A gradual development is natural, because you start small. It is tested a bit, maybe we try and fail to build competence. And that’s good because it’s how you move forward and develop.

Sandefjord Municipality did just that because they are to develop modern citizen services. They realized that the Microsoft Azure ecosystem allowed them to realize this in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

But the eagerness to use all the exciting services that are so available can also be a little too great, which can lead to the development not happening completely in line with the company’s requirements, guidelines and interests.

So the situation Sondre refers to in the video was precisely that they used technology and services without the framework being completely in place.

As a result, they had to clean up afterwards, which could affect the development of what was most important to them – developing new citizen services. Fortunately, they were awake and discovered it so early that it had no major consequences for them.

Had trust

But why do both new and experienced companies end up in such situations? Trust was a word used by Sondre. Trust in suppliers and their own employees knew what needed to be done.

I think the majority of people who go to work every day do so with the best of intentions and meaning. So trust in people is fine, but is it really enough?

It`s human to make mistakes, forget, misunderstand, do not know, lack of competence, etc. Then it does not help to just have trust, because trust in itself does not always protect against mistakes that can lead to serious consequences for the business.

Another thing that is also important to mention in this context. If I’m a person my employer or my client trusts, that’s fine. But still I wanted to avoid that everything depended on it. Both for the employer, the customer and myself.

Don`t wait

If there is one advice I know Sondre would support us on, it`s not to postpone to establish the right rules in the cloud platform.

If you wait until the consequences occur, then it may be too late.

See the whole lecture from the CIO forum here.