What is cloud consulting? Everything you should know

Types of cloud consultants

Cloud consulting firms include a variety of experts, such as boutique specialists, large professional service organizations and global system integrators. Among the common types of cloud consultants are the following:

• Cloud strategy consultants. Help clients specifically with cloud strategy.
• Cloud advisory consultants. Assess existing infrastructure and identify opportunities for cloud adoption.
• Cloud migration specialists. Focus on the challenges of cloud migration.
• Cloud optimization consultants. Monitor and analyze resource utilization, implement automation and improve performance and cost.
• Data and analytics cloud consultants. Design, build or enhance data analytics and data management architectures in the cloud.
• Compliance and security cloud consultants. Ensure security and compliance of cloud infrastructure.
• Application modernization and DevOps consultants. Specialize in migrating and enhancing existing applications for the cloud while adopting DevOps principles and cloud-native architectures for ongoing software development and deployment.
• Hybrid and multi-cloud cloud consultants. Help organizations with a hybrid cloud approach that meshes both on-premises and public cloud or a multi-cloud strategy that uses services from multiple cloud providers.
• Vertical market specialists. Assist organizations with specific needs for industry verticals including government, education, financial services and healthcare.

What role do cloud consultants play?

Cloud consultants can play critical roles in an organization's IT and business operations. These roles help businesses effectively benefit from cloud technology, starting from initial strategy and migration to ongoing management and optimization.

The following are common roles and key responsibilities of cloud consultants.

Strategic guidance

As strategic advisors, cloud consultants assess an organization's current IT infrastructure and business needs. They develop customized cloud strategies aligned with business goals and recommend appropriate cloud platforms and services.

Technical expertise

In their role as technical experts, cloud consultants help design cloud architectures with a strong understanding and knowledge of how the various technology options work and what the actual real-world capabilities can enable for an organization.

Migration planning and execution

Cloud consultants can help plan and organize complex cloud migrations, ranging from single workloads to entire data centers. The process encompasses selecting optimal cloud platforms, designing scalable architectures and ensuring seamless transitions with minimal operational disruption.

Project management

Cloud consultants often take on project management responsibilities, overseeing cloud implementation projects, managing timelines and budgets and coordinating between technical teams and executive management.

Education and knowledge transfer

As experts, consultants are often responsible for training staff on best practices for the cloud. They develop documentation and training materials for internal teams.

Ongoing support and optimization

Cloud consultants provide ongoing support by monitoring cloud performance and usage, troubleshooting issues, providing optimization recommendations and staying updated on the latest cloud innovations.

Cost management (FinOps)

Cloud consultants analyze and optimize cloud environments to maximize resource utilization, improve cost efficiency and minimize overall costs. This includes resource right-sizing, implementing autoscaling and optimizing data transfer and storage strategies.

Benefits and drawbacks of a cloud consultant

There are both benefits and drawbacks to using a cloud consultant.

The benefits of cloud consultants include the following:

• Expertise and experience. Cloud consultants bring knowledge and hands-on experience that an organization might not have on its own.
• Accelerated cloud adoption. With their expertise, consultants can speed up the process of moving to the cloud.
• Business strategy alignment. Cloud consultants can ensure that cloud strategies are aligned with overall business objectives.
• Cost savings. By using cloud consultants, an organization might be able to optimize cloud costs and improve efficiency.
• Improved security. The expertise that cloud consultants bring can help to improve security for cloud deployments.
• Core competence. With consultants helping to manage cloud computing operations, an organization can focus on its core business operations.
• Improved collaboration. Consultants can help establish processes to help different parts of an organization better collaborate and work with cloud computing environments.

The drawbacks of cloud consultants include the following:

• Initial cost. Hiring a cloud consultant can be expensive upfront, especially for small businesses or those with limited budgets. However, it can be a cost-saving exercise in the long run.
• Dependency. There is a risk that an organization might become dependent on a consultant's expertise, which could lead to a lack of internal knowledge development, potentially creating challenges if the relationship ends.
• Learning curve. Consultants might not always align well with an organization's working style and culture. As such internal teams might need time to adapt to new processes recommended by the consultant.
• Confidentiality concerns. Sharing sensitive business information with consultants can make some organizations uncomfortable and pose potential risks.
• Availability. High-demand consultants might not always be available when needed.

What to look for in a cloud consultant

When looking for a cloud consultant, consider the following key factors:

1. Technical expertise

A cloud consultant must have deep knowledge of all the major cloud platforms including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Technical expertise should also include a strong understanding of cloud architecture, security, best practices and emerging technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence. Having experience with different cloud deployment models including public, private and hybrid is also critical.

2. Industry experience

Beyond technical expertise, a consultant should have a proven track record in the organization's specific industry. The consultant should understand industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements.

3. Comprehensive service offerings

Having a full set of cloud services including strategy, migration, implementation, security and cost optimization is a core consideration.

4. Customization capabilities

Organizations should look for consultants that have a flexible approach and methodology. This includes a willingness and ability to customize solutions for the specific needs of the business.

5. Certifications and partnerships

The cloud is complex and one of the ways to prove a basic degree of competence is with relevant cloud certifications. Having established existing partnerships with major cloud providers is also a good indicator.

6. Client references and case studies

As with any purchasing decision, review feedback from previous clients. This can be client references or case studies that demonstrate success in cloud consulting projects.

7. Cultural fit

There must be a cultural fit between the cloud consultant and the organization that includes alignment with the company's values and working style. The consultant should also be able to integrate well with existing teams.

8. Change management skills

Cloud migration and optimization can be a potentially disruptive operation for an organization. Look for consultants that have proven strategies for minimizing disruption during transitions.

9. Support and maintenance capabilities

While strategy and migration are key activities for cloud consulting engagement, consider also the availability of the consultant for ongoing support and maintenance services. Be sure to understand and define clear service-level agreements for support.

10. Pricing structure

There are any number of different ways a cloud consultant can price services. Select vendors with transparent and flexible pricing models, clear explanations of costs and a potential return on investment.