OLD MUTUAL
Learnings from Old Mutual ’ s cloud transformation As Govender highlights , one of the most significant lessons her team has learned from the cloud transformation was the importance of starting its FinOps ( Cloud Financial Management ) capability early on .
“ Whilst in the cloud , we are required to manage consumption models , resource allocation and costs proactively to avoid overspending .” She admits that , initially , Old Mutual ’ s focus was solely on the forward-looking migration , with limited oversight on the cloud capabilities that were implemented in the subsequent migration waves and this led to a continuous increase in costs .”
“ For us , the key learnings were to firstly initiate the FinOps journey as early as possible to gain control over cloud spend , and secondly , instead of solely relying on lift-and-shift migration , we could have taken the opportunity to modernise specific applications concurrently , rather than having to undertake a separate modernisation journey later .”
On the positive side , the rapid migration had its benefits . “ It forced our engineers to start working in the cloud environment quickly , prompting them to learn and upskill themselves on cloud-native technologies and modernisation practices , reducing our reliance on third-party vendors ,” she says .
“ Upon reflection of the overal journey , we could have expedited the modernisation process rather than treating it as a separate , subsequent phase . Additionally , we could have put more effort into upskilling developers on cloud financial management and cloud-native capabilities , empowering them to make well-informed decisions from the outset .
Govender also highlights the value of having an AWS product owner closely involved throughout the journey , providing guidance , and enabling Old Mutual to make informed decisions along the way . “ While there are areas where we could have improved , successfully migrating over 2,000 servers and 800 applications within a three-year timeframe was a significant achievement , and we take pride in our cloud transformation journey .” aimagazine . com 189