Moving to Cloud: Leading Architecture and Security Practices

What Executives Must Get Right—and What They Often Get Wrong

Cloud adoption is no longer a technology decision.
It is an enterprise operating model decision.

Organizations move to the cloud for scalability, resilience, and agility.
They often underestimate the architectural and governance implications.

Cloud does not simplify complexity.
It amplifies it.

The difference between cloud success and cloud regret is architectural discipline.

Board-Level Cloud Migration Checklist

What Executive Leadership Must Validate Before Approving Migration

This checklist is not technical.
It is governance-focused.

Before approving major cloud migration funding, executive leadership should require affirmative answers to the following:

1. Strategic Alignment

☐ Have we clearly defined why we are moving to the cloud (cost, agility, resilience, innovation)?
☐ Is cloud migration tied to business capabilities and measurable KPIs?
☐ Have we defined which workloads should move—and which should not?

If the strategy is vague, migration becomes opportunistic rather than intentional.

2. Target Architecture Defined

☐ Is there a documented target cloud architecture?
☐ Have we defined our landing zone (identity, network, logging, cost controls)?
☐ Are reference architectures and standards approved?

Without a target model, teams will design inconsistently.

3. Operating Model Readiness

☐ Have we defined platform team responsibilities?
☐ Are DevOps and security roles embedded in delivery?
☐ Is there a clear decision-rights model for architecture exceptions?

Cloud changes accountability structures.
Operating model misalignment is a leading cause of failure.

4. Financial Governance (FinOps)

☐ Do we have tagging standards?
☐ Are cost dashboards visible to leadership?
☐ Is there a chargeback or showback model?
☐ Are budget alerts automated?

Cloud cost overruns are governance failures—not technical failures.

5. Security Architecture

☐ Is identity federated and centrally governed?
☐ Are least-privilege and zero-trust principles enforced?
☐ Is encryption standardized and key ownership defined?
☐ Is infrastructure deployed through secure Infrastructure-as-Code pipelines?

Security must be engineered from inception—not audited after go-live.

6. Resilience and Business Continuity

☐ Have we defined availability tiers per workload?
☐ Are RTO/RPO targets validated against business risk tolerance?
☐ Is observability centralized and automated?

Cloud resilience increases cost.
Cost savings reduce resilience.
Trade-offs must be explicit.

7. Application Modernization Strategy

☐ Are we selectively refactoring high-value applications?
☐ Have we identified systems to retire rather than migrate?
☐ Is integration architecture redesigned for cloud-native patterns?

Lift-and-shift preserves inefficiency.
Selective modernization produces value.

8. Risk and Compliance Oversight

☐ Is shared responsibility clearly documented?
☐ Are compliance controls automated and continuously monitored?
☐ Is there an executive risk dashboard for cloud posture?

Cloud governance must be continuous, not periodic.

If these eight domains are not structurally addressed, cloud migration introduces uncontrolled exposure.

Executive Perspective

Cloud is not inherently safer.
It is not inherently cheaper.
It is not inherently simpler.

It is inherently more elastic.

Strong governance converts elasticity into advantage.
Weak governance converts elasticity into fragmentation.

The responsibility for success lies at the executive architecture level.

Maher Dahdour
Chief Enterprise Architect
Strategica Labs

About Strategica Labs

Strategica Labs (formerly Strategica Enterprise Services) is an enterprise-level advisory firm specializing in architecture governance, cloud operating models, and executive transformation oversight.

We work directly with executive leadership teams to design and implement structured Enterprise Architecture Control Systems™ that ensure cloud migration and digital transformation initiatives remain aligned with strategic objectives, risk tolerance, and measurable value.

Our advisory engagements focus on:

• Cloud governance frameworks

• Target architecture design

• Secure landing zone models

• FinOps discipline

• Executive dashboard implementation

• Architecture operating model transformation

Organizations navigating cloud complexity, regulatory exposure, or portfolio misalignment may engage Strategica Labs for structured advisory workshops or executive governance assessments.