Douglas Menefee discusses enabling a new IT organization through cloud adoption. He advocates reframing cloud strategy discussions as business leadership opportunities. Leaders must embrace their company's mission and business objectives. They should drive change through transparent conversations with stakeholders across the organization. Leaders also focus on developing new skills in their staff and letting go of outdated ways of thinking to drive innovation.

1. Enabling the new IT Organization
Douglas Menefee
Enterprise CIO Advisor
@douglobb
dmenefee@amazon.com

2. Recovering Chief Information Officer, energetic leader,
and obsessive cloud computing advocate
2013
Benefits
2005
100%
on-premise
90%
Cloud based
Drivers:
• Agility & Continuity
• Scaling
• Mobile
• Innovation
Results:
300% growth in Revenue
466% growth in Patients Served
Diversified from 1 service line to 5

3. Amazon Web Services
Enterprise CIO Advisor

4. Today isn’t about me or Amazon. It is about you.

5. Today is about reframing the “Cloud Strategy”
conversation from a technology debate into a
business leadership opportunity to better
enable your organization.

6. Past
• Hardware & Software
• Custom code/
Programming
• Departmental solutions
• HelpDesk
• Closed Systems
Now
• Data Center Management
• Addressing legacy code
• Data governance
• Security & Compliance
• Enterprise standards
• Mobility
• Traverses every aspect of
business
• Philosophical division around
cloud computing
• Outsource management
2020
• Leadership alignment on business and
culture imperatives
• Fluid business objectives
• Increased empowerment of business
decision makers
• Multiple user experiences
• Hardware/processing viewed as a utility
• Business enablement with flexible
enterprise standards
• Increased agility w/ shorter cycle times
• Applying technology instead of creating
customization
• Disposable technology
• Massive datasets from multiple sources
We know a paradigm shift is occurring:

7. To address this ever evolving paradigm, it is critical for
all levels of IT to emerge from the shadows of our
predecessors and lead a new approach to solving
business challenges through innovation.

8. “Earth's Most Customer Centric Company”
Leaders clearly understand and articulate
how they directly or indirectly impact their
company’s MISSION.
Embrace
The Mission
1

9. Leaders embrace and influence their
company’s overarching business objectives.
Business
Objectives
2
• Agility
• Flexibility
• Elasticity
• Cost Reductions
• Alignment
• Availability
• Security
• Innovation

10. For large enterprises, embracing the mission
and being aligned with business objectives is
sometimes easier said than done.

11. Evolution of the Enterprise

12. Time
Agility
Functionality
Complexity
Cost
Enterprise wide
cloud adoption
inflection point.
Leaders are leveraging the .

13. Build a
“private” cloud
Rip and replace"
with AWS
# 1
# 2
Many Worry That There Are Only Two Choices

14. On-Premises
Resources
Cloud
Resources
Integration
(“Hybrid”)
Corporate Data
Centers
The Cloud Isn’t An All-or-Nothing Choice

15. Leaders drive change through transparent
broad reaching proactive conversations with
multiple stakeholders.
Drive
Change
3

16. IT Executives IT Managers
System Engineers
& Developers
Strategy
Vision
Strategy Strategy

17. C-suite:
Leadership, vision, enterprise communications, business objectives
Adjacent Departments:
Collaboration with finance, HR, legal, risk, & LOB decision makers
Info Security & Compliance:
Proactive approval of policies and procedures.
Core & LOB IT teams:
Gap analysis, change management, investigation, acquire cloud experienced talent
Individual member of IT:
Individual exploration and embraced contribution to the vision

18. Prioritization
Teamwork
Organizational awareness
Problem solving
Self-awareness
Proactivity
Influence
Decision making
Learning agility
Technical expertise
Drive
Change
3
Leaders are building the next generation of
employees by focusing their staff on a diverse
set of new skills.

19. To drive a culture of innovation, leaders
realize they have to let go of the past.

20. Letting go of the past is the hardest part of
any type of transformation.
Let
Go
4
Perspective Change
How to deliver?
Risk Tolerant
When to deliver?
Active Engagement
Who to engage?
Mission Obsessed
Why to invest?
Benefit of
Department
Operational
Experience
Immediate
Adjacency
Cross
Section
Solution
Description
Technical
Design
Core Competencies
In the business of?
Tactical
Strategic
Execution
Individual
Goals
Company
Results
Departmental
Focus
Enterprise
ValueCurrent
State
People
Process
Technology
Envisioned
State
Mission
focused
Business
Aligned
Strategic
Dynamic

21. Words to
Action
5
FullIntegratedExploring Interfacing
Apply business value as the primary driver
to the journey.
Value = Benefits - Detriments
(Speed + Agility) (Risk) + (Cost)

22. Letting go of the past is the hardest part of any type
of transformation.
Embrace
The Mission
1
Business
Objectives
2
Drive
Change
3
Let
Go
4
Drive change through transparent broad reaching proactive
conversations with multiple stakeholders.
Embrace and influence the overarching business objectives
which need to be accomplished.
Clearly understand and articulate how you directly or indirectly
impact the mission of your company.
Words to
Action
5
Apply business value as the primary driver to
the journey.
Reframe your “Cloud Strategy” conversation from a technology debate
into a business leadership opportunity.

23. Contact Information
Douglas Menefee
Enterprise CIO Advisor
@douglobb
dmenefee@amazon.com
1. How have you embraced the cloud to better
align technology with your business?
2. What have you done to drive clarity around
exploring or embracing the cloud?
(C-suite, IT teams, Line of Business execs)
3. What impact, if any, has cloud adoption had
on the culture of your organization?