Many people start talking about technology choices very early in conversations. There may have been significant recent investigation aimed at a technology component or direction. There may be team structures aimed at supporting technology commitments previously made. Financially, there may be a perception that change is going to be difficult and expensive. There may also be those that are afraid of change as it may politically change their value, roles may change, team structures could change along with current responsibilities, or skill sets may need significant changes for those late in their career path.

Strategy determines direction; technology implements it. Technology can influence strategy, but cannot dictate it. Before the cloud, projects were designed and engineered for the anticipated high-water mark of utilization, even if it was for 1 minute. The anticipated workload determined infrastructure size and scale. Cloud has now enabled us to design and architect for the low side baseline workloads and dynamically burst as needed into demand-based configurations using automation and scripting, improving economics, and matching technology to strategy.