Your Journey to the Cloud – Part 3: Optimisation & Improvement

In Part 1 of the “Your Journey to the Cloud” blog series, we explored Cloud Assessment & Planning in more detail, outlining the multi-step approach behind a cloud adoption journey.
In Part 2 https://www.searchlightconsulting.co.uk/2025/08/13/your-journey-to-the-cloud-part-2-transformation-implementation-2/, we discussed Cloud Transformation & Implementation as logical next steps following Cloud Assessment and Planning.
Now, in Part 3, our focus is on ongoing Optimisation & Improvement—ensuring your cloud investment delivers value over time.

Cloud Optimisation & Improvement

Once cloud solutions are deployed, continual optimisation and improvement are vital to unlocking their full potential. Now that your new cloud capabilities are in place, the next step is to cement and expand on the progress you have made. Success in this phase depends on developing Skills, Methods, and Tools that are Repeatable, Maintainable, and Scalable.

Initial digital projects often serve as valuable learning opportunities for the organisation, typically involving small, focused teams who experiment with new technologies and approaches. However, achieving long-term success with cloud adoption requires organisations to establish sustainable agile practices. In Part 2 of our blog series, we examined the People, Processes, and Technology necessary for digital transformation. To consistently replicate this success across future initiatives, a clearly defined set of core Skills, Methods, and Tools must be put in place:

Skills

Building the right cloud capabilities requires developing key skills across your team to enable agile, efficient delivery. In most Agile frameworks, three key roles are fundamental for achieving optimal outcomes:

• Product Owner: Acts as the customer’s advocate, maintains a prioritised backlog, and ensures maximum return on investment. Also responsible/accountable for documenting user stories and project requirements.

• Scrum Master (Team Lead): Coaches and facilitates the team, secures necessary resources, and removes obstacles to progress. The Scrum Master brings strong interpersonal and organisational skills, focusing on coaching and teamwork rather than detailed planning or technical tasks.

• Agile Team: The creative force in the agile group—typically developers, business analysts, testers, and UX specialists in software development.

Alongside these roles, developing skills in cloud cost optimisation, automation, and monitoring are crucial for sustaining and enhancing your cloud environment.

Top Tip: Given the ongoing shortage of agile expertise, consider investing in the training and development of your current staff (e.g., agile certifications). This approach not only helps control labour costs but also supports retention and motivation—crucial for your cloud journey.

Methods

Most cloud journeys are carried out using an Agile approach. Adopting proven agile methodologies provides structure for ongoing improvement. The primary methods include:

• Scrum: The most widely used Agile methodology, breaking projects into short sprints (typically two weeks). Planning and work focus on one sprint at a time, with progress tracked on visual Scrum boards. Scrum’s cycles allow for frequent releases, continuous feedback, and course correction—ideal for ongoing cloud optimisation.

• Kanban: Emphasises visualising work, limiting work in progress, and maximising efficiency. Kanban teams reduce the time taken for a project to move from start to finish by enhancing workflow with a Kanban board.

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Used to organise work and agile teams, enabling agile delivery at enterprise scale with multiple Scrum teams in parallel.

Additionally, integrating development and operations (DevOps) is increasingly important to accelerate delivery and more effectively launch new capabilities.

Top Tip: All Agile methodologies are designed to deliver fast, high-quality results, so don’t overthink which to choose. Instead, adopt best practices from each and tailor them to your organisation’s needs. Consider pilot projects before rolling out new methods or tools.

Tools

The right toolsets simplify collaboration, automation, and monitoring—essential for successful cloud optimisation. Categories include:

• Agile Programme Management (APM): Tools like monday.com, Jira, and Asana enable efficient, collaborative product development and project delivery. These tools can be customised for your workflow, are highly visual, and enhance transparency and stakeholder interaction.

• DevOps: Tools to address five key areas: Communication (Slack, MS Teams), CI/CD (Jenkins, Bamboo), Configuration Management (Chef, Puppet), Security (Gerrit, SonarQube), and Monitoring & Alerting (Raygun, Nagios).

• Code Management: For code management, distributed version control (GitHub, GitLab), build automation (Maven, Gradle), and for containers, platforms like Docker or Kubernetes are essential.

Top Tip: With agile toolsets constantly evolving, it’s wise to assess their long-term viability before investing significantly.

In Summary

Optimisation and improvement after cloud deployments enable businesses to stay agile, respond to shifting market conditions, and maintain high-quality service. Embedding repeatable, scalable best practices in skills, methods, and tools will allow your organisation to continuously improve and realise the full benefits of cloud adoption.

Searchlight Consulting has supported organisations in developing their capabilities and delivering tangible results across the entire cloud journey.

Contact us for more information or tailored support on accelerating your optimisation journey.
We look forward to staying in touch—follow us on LinkedIn for further insights.