On Cloud

Companies are retrenching their operations in the face of unprecedented headwinds, and HR is no exception. Cloud-based HR can improve connections between employees and management and help companies build the workforce of the future.

Value-stream mapping isn't just about eliminating work, it's about looking at processes across the organization, finding bottlenecks, and then using a team approach to understand and remove them—in other words, it's about finding the value in workstreams. In this episode of the podcast Mike Kavis and guest, Visible Value Stream Consulting's Steve Pereira, talk value-stream mapping—why it works, how to get started, and what it should look like long term.

When most people think about SRE, they think numbers, percentages, SLIs, and SLOs. That stew of acronyms is important, but, really, what drives site reliability engineering is the goal of building systems that truly satisfy customers and keep them coming back.

Cloud is revolutionary, but at some companies, cloud deployments don't revolutionize their IT outcomes. Why? Because they don't change their IT culture. To realize more success with cloud, it's essential to change culture along with technology. In this episode of the podcast, Mike Kavis and guest, Deloitte's Jon Smart, discuss how companies can change their IT culture to achieve more success with cloud. Jon's take is that companies can build, "better value, sooner, safer, happier," by discovering anti-patterns that provide headwinds to cloud success, fixing those, and building a culture of psychological safety that reduces fear and focuses on outcomes, communication, and teamwork.

Ever wonder how all that software that helps you get what you need out of the cloud gets to market? It starts with getting the feel of the market, establishing relationships with cloud providers, and partnering with them to meet their customers' critical needs.

Cloud—especially when paired with AI—is proving its value, even to conservative disciplines such as audit and tax, where it's helping people work smarter and fueling collaboration and innovation. One key to success: Leadership should set the tone from the top.

In a fast-moving cloud environment, companies must be ready to change course quickly to meet an uncertain future. Two keys to success are flexibility to deploy multiple tools to meet specific needs and democratized information to gain critical insights.

DevOps and SRE are critical to software delivery--especially in cloud. A focus on people and collaboration, as well as shifting from a project to a product mentality, are strategies that can increase the chances of a successful implementation.