Industrializing Cloud at Global Scale
Context & Stakes
Cloud adoption across a global insurance group was proceeding entity by entity, with each subsidiary evaluating vendors and architectures independently. The result was fragmentation — inconsistent cost models, ungoverned risk, and no coherent picture at the group level.
The Real Problem
They Thought
Cloud adoption is a technology choice — each entity evaluates and adopts independently. Centralization means mandating a single platform.My Findings
The real challenge was not choosing a cloud provider. It was designing guardrails that balanced global coherence with local autonomy — standardizing what must be standardized while freeing everything else.Key Interventions
Principles-based operating model — Defined what must be standardized (cost visibility, risk governance, resilience requirements) versus what can vary by entity (vendor selection, architectural choices, implementation approach).
Economic reframing — Positioned cloud as a variable cost lever and operating discipline, not an automatic saving. This prevented the common trap of over-promising cost reduction.
Governance built with practitioners — Designed governance jointly with entity IT leaders, ensuring it was practical and owned rather than imposed from the centre and routed around.
Measured Outcomes
Cloud adoption shifted from ad hoc to governed and repeatable. Innovation outcomes that had been personality-dependent became institutional capabilities.
Why This Case Is Reusable
The centralize-versus-decentralize debate recurs in every multi-entity organization. The principles-based approach — standardize the non-negotiable, free everything else — is a third option that resolves the tension without either imposing uniformity or accepting chaos.
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eric.de.morgoli@proton.me or View engagement criteria