When we talk about IT infrastructures in companies and organizations, the cloud has long ceased to play a secondary role and is increasingly becoming a main player. According to a Bitkom study from 2021, companies want to run more than half of their applications in the cloud by 2025 – for large companies, this figure is as high as three quarters^[1]. Some applications are now being developed exclusively for the cloud. The reasons for this development are numerous. In addition to flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness, the possibilities for innovation are particularly decisive. Applications or new functions can be realized, tested and brought to market within a short time.

As the cloud becomes the new normal, the process of meaningfully adopting the cloud in an established enterprise is iterative and takes time. In addition to the technical challenges, especially in the case of evolved structures, organizational and cultural aspects are increasingly coming to the fore. As the cloud takes away much of the work associated with traditional infrastructure and is heavily code and automation driven, the boundaries between application and infrastructure delivery are becoming increasingly blurred. The cloud thus offers companies the opportunity to rethink boundaries and ways of working.

To institutionalize best practices, governance and automation across the enterprise, organizations are turning to the creation and deployment of a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE). This center of excellence defines clear guidelines and best practices for using the cloud to ensure a consistent and secure environment and provides support for overcoming barriers and adopting new ways of working and structures. The CCoE acts as a guide to accelerate change and ensures that employees are well prepared and have the necessary skills to successfully implement the company's cloud strategy.

The CCoE is usually made up of an interdisciplinary team of IT experts, managers and employees from various departments. This enables efficient knowledge sharing and close collaboration to overcome challenges and take full advantage of the cloud.

According to Gartner, the core pillars of a cloud center of excellence include:

• Governance: Create policies in collaboration with a cross-functional team and select governance tools for financial and risk management.
• Brokerage: Assist with cloud vendor selection, design cloud solution(s), and collaborate with the delivering cloud platform entities as well as cloud vendors.
• Community: Improve cloud knowledge in the organization and record and disseminate best practices within the organization.^[2]

^[1] https://bitkom-research.de/de/pressemitteilung/nutzung-von-cloud-computing-steigt-im-corona-jahr

^[2] https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/hub/cloud-conferences/insights/how-to-build-a-cloud-center-of-excellence