Cloud service strategy and cloud service design
What this domain tests
Cloud service strategy and cloud service design examines whether you can turn business outcomes into cloud service offerings and then design services that are fit for use and fit for purpose. Expect questions on service offerings, value streams, sourcing and service models, utility and warranty, shared responsibility, service levels, resilience, portability and exit.
Core rules
- Start with outcomes and demand, not a provider's feature list. A cloud service offering should state the outcome, scope, service levels, consumption model, responsibilities and constraints.
- Use the service value chain to connect demand to value. Strategy sets direction; design makes the service operable, measurable and governable.
- Design for the whole lifecycle: identity, integration, data, security, availability, capacity, continuity, cost and exit. Utility is fitness for purpose; warranty is fitness for use.
- Make responsibilities explicit. In cloud, the provider and consumer share controls, but accountability for the consumer's outcomes remains with the consumer.
- Validate design assumptions with consumers and suppliers before transition.
Worked example
A retailer wants faster staff onboarding. The strategy is not 'buy an HR SaaS tool'; it is 'reduce onboarding time from ten days to two.' Design maps the onboarding value stream, then specifies identity federation, role templates, data residency, availability targets, integration with payroll, support hours and an exit plan for extracting employee records. Reasoning: the offering is judged by the outcome and warranty, not by the SaaS feature count. The design also exposes shared responsibilities and dependencies.
Traps
Treating cloud adoption as procurement; copying a provider SLA without checking consumer needs; designing only the happy path; omitting exit, data portability and shared responsibility; and confusing technical components with a service offering.