Once an organization evaluates the cloud adoption drivers and makes the decision to begin a cloud journey, this is when the work begins, but how? According to Amazon Web Services' Cloud Adoption Framework (https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws_cloud_adoption_framework.pdf), "Cloud adoption requires that fundamental changes are discussed and considered across the entire organization, and that stakeholders across all organizational units—both outside and within IT—support these changes". Furthermore, the three typical areas of focus – people, processes, and technology – still apply to the cloud journey, but that is too simple for the scale of the change being made. This journey will involve business owners, human resource considerations, and procurement changes, and will require strong governance and have project management requirements. In addition, the technology will have a wide variety of impacts on all parties and specific decisions relating to the target platform, security, and operations are critical.

There are many organizational change theories that can be applied to how the cloud journey is approached, and, similar to any large transformational undertaking, it will take stakeholders across the whole organization to participate. One organizational change pattern that aligns well to the cloud journey is Dr. Kotter's theory (https://www.kotterinternational.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/). Kotter has identified eight steps that lead to successful, top-down change management across enterprises. These steps are as follows:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a guiding coalition
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives
4. Enlist a volunteer army
5. Enable action by removing barriers
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Sustain acceleration
8. Institute change

Using this methodology for the cloud journey works well because typically, the change is so large and transformational that it must start at the very top, often with the Board of Directors and CEO. At those levels, the idea of simple cost savings or agility are too narrow, but a targeted business change must be the desired outcome, one that will set the company on a new course to increased revenues and shareholder value. Therefore, aligning this journey to this business change is the sense of urgency often required and, from there, a coalition is established of believers who will drive this vision forward. The people who are actually involved in the work will form the initial volunteer army; these people are risk takers and high performers that see this change as a way to increase their knowledge of a new technology, advance their own career, or be a part of something big, and removing barriers will enable them to move fast and stay focused. Long-term success will require buy-in from the less adventurous and, to do that, there must be a significant number of minor gains to prove that this is a successful strategy, ultimately leading to the acceleration of new cloud native projects or migrations that will then be finalized as the new normal.