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Cloud strategy & architecture
Cloud strategy and architecture consultancy
A Microsoft Cloud strategy your teams can deliver. Konsolute connects business priorities to workload decisions, target architecture and a realistic roadmap, assessing your estate, comparing Azure and Microsoft 365 options and setting out the costs and responsibilities behind the plan.
WHAT THIS HELPS YOU ACHIEVE
Clear investment and architecture decisions
Replace broad cloud ambitions with documented choices, a sequenced roadmap and assumptions decision makers can challenge.
Decisions supported by evidence
Give stakeholders the workload, cost and capability information behind the preferred approach.
A realistic target architecture
Match platform patterns to service requirements, delivery skills and operating responsibilities.
A clearer investment case
Expose assumptions and trade-offs so cost scenarios can be reviewed before commitment.
A roadmap with prerequisites
Sequence foundation work and workload changes with decision gates and accountable owners.
OUR CLOUD STRATEGY AND ARCHITECTURE SERVICES
From business priorities to technical decisions
Six areas of strategy and architecture work that turn cloud ambitions into decisions, designs and a roadmap your teams can deliver.
Cloud readiness and business priorities
Assess the drivers for change, current capabilities and constraints, and set decision criteria around service needs, risk, delivery capacity and investment priorities.
Workload portfolio assessment
Build an agreed view of applications, infrastructure and dependencies, and identify what to rehost, replatform, refactor, retain or retire, with the evidence behind it.
Target cloud architecture
Define Azure and Microsoft 365 patterns for identity, connectivity, resource organisation and resilience, using Cloud Adoption Framework and Well-Architected principles.
Cloud business case
Model cost scenarios for hosting, licences, delivery and operation, recording utilisation, growth and migration assumptions so estimates aren't mistaken for savings.
Transformation roadmap
Sequence foundation work, workload changes and adoption dependencies, with decision gates, resource needs and migration waves set against business readiness.
Cloud operating model
Define ownership across platform, application, security, finance and support teams, with governance, change and service-management roles that fit how you deliver.
CAPABILITIES & DELIVERY SCOPE
What the technical work covers
Workstreams are selected and scoped around your environment. Each combines technical decisions, implementation tasks and evidence for handover.
Cloud readiness and business priorities
Translate business objectives into decision criteria for cloud adoption. Assess delivery capability, constraints and the evidence needed to choose between the available options.
Workload portfolio assessment
Connect the application inventory to dependencies, criticality and ownership. Propose dispositions and identify workloads that require deeper discovery or technical validation.
Target cloud architecture
Define the target platform boundaries and cross-cutting patterns for identity, networking, governance and resilience. Record important design decisions and the alternatives considered.
Hosting-option decisions
Evaluate workload hosting models against compatibility, operational burden and service requirements. Use focused proofs of concept where evidence is insufficient for a final decision.
Cloud business case
Build comparable cost scenarios that include platform consumption, licences, delivery and operation. Test sensitivity to growth, utilisation and transition assumptions.
Transformation roadmap
Sequence foundational capabilities, workload waves and business change. Record dependencies, decision gates and the resources needed to move from one phase to the next.
Cloud operating model
Define responsibilities across platform, application, security, finance and support teams. Identify capability gaps and the processes needed to run the target environment.
Architecture assurance
Establish design review checkpoints and a record of decisions and exceptions. Review the architecture against the agreed service priorities as delivery detail emerges.
TECHNICAL DESIGN DECISIONS
Technical decisions that shape delivery
These choices affect implementation, ongoing operation and the evidence needed to accept the work.
Business outcomes before platform choices
Define which operational or customer problems the programme must solve. Use those outcomes to evaluate workloads and avoid making product selection the strategy.
Assumptions visible in the business case
Separate measured usage from estimates, include transition and operating costs, and test growth and utilisation scenarios before presenting a preferred option.
Architecture matched to delivery capacity
A target platform must fit the team's skills and support model. Record the capability and staffing changes required alongside the technical design.
Roadmap built around dependencies
Identity, connectivity, licensing, procurement and business change can constrain delivery. Sequence prerequisites and assign decision owners before promising migration dates.
OUR APPROACH
How we deliver cloud strategy and architecture
Six stages take you from the business questions to an owned plan, with a costed case and a roadmap built around real dependencies.
Agree the business questions
Identify the outcomes, investment questions and constraints the strategy must address.
Assess the estate
Collect workload, dependency, cost and capability evidence and record information gaps.
Compare target options
Evaluate hosting and platform patterns with security, resilience and operating-model trade-offs.
Build the business case
Model realistic cost scenarios and identify the assumptions that have the greatest effect.
Sequence delivery
Build a roadmap with prerequisites, workload waves, decision gates and indicative resource needs.
Confirm ownership
Review the plan with accountable stakeholders and establish architecture governance for implementation.
Assess.Design.Decide.
WHERE WE CAN HELP
Where cloud strategy and architecture fit
Start with the requirement that matches your estate. Assessment establishes the technical dependencies and scope.
See it in practice: Konsolute led the move of Great British Energy – Nuclear from a shared central government environment to its own greenfield Microsoft 365 tenant, with Zero Trust built in from day one.
WHAT WE DELIVER
Strategy deliverables your team can use
The proposal identifies which of these outputs are included, their level of detail and the acceptance criteria.
Strategy and portfolio decisions
Business priorities, readiness findings and workload dispositions with evidence and open assumptions.
Target architecture
Platform and workload patterns, diagrams and architecture decision records for the agreed scope.
Investment and delivery plan
Scenario-based cost model, dependencies, phased roadmap and decision gates.
Operating model
Responsibilities, governance, capability gaps and architecture assurance arrangements for delivery.
FAQ
Cloud strategy and architecture FAQs
Strategy contents, landing zones, workload decisions, hosting options, cost estimates, existing designs, data location and roadmaps.
The agreed strategy can include business priorities, an estate assessment, workload dispositions, target architecture, a cost model, a phased roadmap and an operating model. The evidence available and decisions required determine the final scope.
No. Strategy and architecture establish the decisions and design needed for delivery. A landing-zone implementation can follow as a separate workstream, with deployable infrastructure and technical acceptance criteria.
We assess business criticality, dependencies, supportability, cost, performance and delivery effort. Each workload receives a proposed disposition and supporting assumptions rather than a blanket recommendation to move everything.
Yes, where relevant to the workload portfolio. We compare compatibility, operational demands, scaling and architecture constraints, and identify where a proof of concept is needed before a final platform decision.
Its reliability depends on estate data, usage measurements and the assumptions used. We document growth, utilisation, licensing, transition and operating costs and compare scenarios so stakeholders can understand uncertainty.
We can review the proposed or existing design against requirements and relevant Well-Architected considerations. Findings distinguish design changes, implementation checks and operational improvements.
We capture the requirements provided by your organisation and use them to inform service, region and architecture decisions. Legal interpretation and formal compliance determinations remain with the appropriate accountable specialists.
The operating model can incorporate internal teams and existing suppliers. The architecture and roadmap define interfaces, decision ownership and dependencies so implementation responsibilities are explicit.
The roadmap identifies phases, dependencies, decision gates and indicative effort using the assessment evidence. Detailed delivery commitments depend on validated requirements, design and resource availability.
We connect recommendations to owned decisions, prioritised workstreams and delivery gates. Handover includes the assumptions, architecture records and governance needed for implementation teams to act on the plan.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Turn your cloud ambitions into a deliverable plan
Tell Konsolute about your current environment and the priorities above. We can define the assessment, engineering work and handover needed for a focused engagement.