It’s incredibly easy for organizations to accumulate a ton of new cloud platforms. We recommend conducting a cloud platform check-up on a regular basis—at a minimum, once a year (although quarterly is advised!)
What’s a Cloud Platform Check-Up?
A cloud platform check-up is the process of reviewing your organization’s full stack of cloud platforms and apps to identify any opportunities to:
- Cancel any subscriptions that are no longer needed
- Eliminate unnecessary licenses
- Downgrade to a lower tier
- Assess whether you have any redundant platforms that might be ripe for consolidation
- Review and strengthen security configurations
Benefits of a Cloud Platform Check-Up
Going through this process usually leads to:
- Cost savings
- Strengthened security posture
- Improved knowledge management
Cost Savings
The cost savings benefits of conducting a cloud platform check-up are essential—especially in today’s cost-conscious IT climate. By identifying and eliminating platforms that are no longer needed or are redundant, your organization saves money.
For example, is your organization using Microsoft 365 (with Teams) or Google Workspace? If so, do you really need Zoom?
Even eliminating dozens of licenses for a platform can translate into thousands of dollars in direct cost savings.
Information Security Benefits
The information security benefits of reducing your cloud platform footprint are substantial. While the vendor is responsible for securing its servers and infrastructure, subscribers are responsible for setting and maintaining their own security configurations. Frequently, individuals or departments outside of IT end up being unofficially responsible for securing their accounts and data stored in these systems, since IT isn’t aware of—or simply doesn’t manage—certain cloud platforms.
For example, it may be unclear who is responsible for:
- Enforcing multi-factor authentication
- Enabling an audit log if one is not turned on by default
- De-provisioning accounts for staff members as soon as they leave the organization
- Configuring the retention policy
- Setting up cloud-to-cloud backups
Eliminating shadow IT platforms and consolidating niche platforms with a small number of accounts can provide a significant boost to your organization’s overall security posture.
Knowledge Management Benefits
From a knowledge management perspective, eliminating niche platforms makes it easier for staff to find, discover, access, and reuse organizational knowledge.
Many clients share that staff “don’t know where to find things,” “spend lots of time hunting for knowledge,” or “not everyone has access to all of our platforms, so it is difficult to collaborate.” Even if staff are accustomed to a particular platform, eliminating something for the good of the organization as a whole can address common knowledge management pain points.
Next Steps
If your organization has a well-maintained inventory and centralized management of all cloud platforms—including those that are paid for on a monthly or annual basis with a credit card outside of IT—it can be a quick and easy process to conduct an annual cloud platform check-up.
- Schedule a 30-minute meeting with key stakeholders to review what’s in place.
- Identify any candidates to immediately downgrade or eliminate.
- Identify candidates to review in more detail with relevant stakeholders to confirm what’s still essential.
Don’t know where to start? Contact FireOak for help.
