Federal agencies are looking to improve their cloud management practices with the help of the newly released Cloud Operations Best Practices and Resource Guide.
The guide – developed by the CIO Council’s Enterprise Operations committee and the General Services Administration’s IT Modernization Division – offers insights from 82 experts across 31 agencies on purchasing, managing, and migrating cloud applications.
“Whether purchasing new cloud services, migrating applications, or simply managing your current IT investments, your agency’s ability to manage the cost, capability, security and quality of your cloud impacts how well it serves its mission and its stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” the 106-page document reads.
The guide is divided into four main sections – leadership, business management, security, and platform engineering – and covers various aspects of cloud management. It also includes five appendices with templates for assessing cloud readiness, managing supply chain challenges, and addressing change management issues.
“The overarching theme of this guide is that cloud operations fundamentally differ from traditional IT operations. This difference emerges in virtually every aspect of IT operations, including strategy, planning, budgeting, governance, monitoring, provisioning, and more,” the guide says.
“A second theme focuses on the practices presented as part of a continuous effort to improve operations. There is no one-and-done, one-size-fits-all best practice,” it continues. “Instead, successful improvement in cloud operations will be incremental and repeated.”
The agencies noted that the guide is not a how-to or training document and it is not meant to be read cover to cover. Rather, it is organized to allow readers to quickly find the relevant best practices, useful resources, and agency templates on a specific topic of interest.
One of the goals of the guide is to answer some of the toughest questions agencies face when transitioning to cloud services. By offering best practices and advice from experienced professionals, the guide aims to provide a valuable resource for agencies seeking to optimize their cloud operations.
