I led the Cloud Readiness Assessment (CRA) and hyperscaler selection for an international cargo airline operating a complex estate of 759 assessed applications. The engagement was a full three-way evaluation of GCP, AWS, and Azure — covering total cost of ownership, technical fit, ecosystem capabilities, credit incentives, and migration complexity. The outcome was a clear recommendation for GCP as the primary cloud platform, based on superior 5-year savings (~$10M), a stronger TCO advantage (~40% annual cost reduction), and ~$3.4M in confirmed GCP credits.
I conducted the CloudScape-based complexity scoring of the full application portfolio, designed the Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) operating model, and structured the business case and credit negotiation. The engagement concluded with an executed Phase 2 SOW to plan and execute migration of 500+ VMs, including the Citrix virtual desktop environment.
CloudScape complexity scores derived from dependency depth, integration count, bespoke code density, and licensing constraints. Hard and Very Hard apps (~38%) identified for dedicated re-architecture workstreams in Wave 2+.
Foundation & Networking
- GCP organization design: folders, projects, IAM hierarchy
- Shared VPC with hub-spoke topology and Cloud Interconnect to on-premises
- Network segmentation aligned to cargo operational zones
- Cloud Armor, Cloud Logging, and Security Command Center baseline
Virtual Desktop (Citrix)
- 500+ VMs including Citrix VDA nodes assessed in Phase 1
- GCP Bare Metal + Compute Engine sizing for Citrix delivery layer
- Citrix Cloud vs. self-managed evaluation on GCP
- User profile storage design with Cloud Filestore and backup policies
Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE)
- Operating model design: CCoE charter, RACI, and governance policies
- Landing zone standards and tagging taxonomy for cost allocation
- Cloud financial management: budget alerts, committed use discounts
- Enablement roadmap: training tracks for platform, security, and FinOps teams
Migration Tooling & Automation
- Migrate to Virtual Machines (MVM) for lift-and-shift workload batches
- Database Migration Service (DMS) for relational database migrations
- Terraform IaC standards defined for Wave 1 foundation builds
- Wave orchestration tooling integrated with existing ITSM change management
Wave 1 — Foundation (Months 1–4)
GCP org structure, networking foundation, IAM, and security baseline. Easy-complexity apps migrated as proving-ground workloads to validate tooling and runbooks before broader rollout.
Wave 2a — Core Operations (Months 5–12)
500+ VMs including Citrix virtual desktop environment. Core cargo operations, freight management, and scheduling systems targeted. Phase 2 SOW scope.
Wave 2b — Business Apps (Months 10–18)
Medium-complexity business applications including finance, HR, and commercial systems. Rehost-dominant with targeted re-platform opportunities identified.
Wave 3 — Complex & Legacy (Months 16–30)
Hard and Very Hard complexity apps — bespoke integrations, legacy OS workloads, and tightly coupled systems. Re-architecture options evaluated per app in dedicated workstreams.
3-Way Hyperscaler Evaluation
Led the scored evaluation of GCP, AWS, and Azure — building the comparison framework, gathering pricing inputs, and producing the recommendation narrative with supporting financial data.
CloudScape Complexity Scoring
Applied CloudScape-based complexity assessment to all 759 applications — producing the Easy/Medium/Hard/Very Hard distribution that drove wave sequencing and pricing.
5-Year TCO Model
Built the full financial model for GCP, AWS, and Azure scenarios — rightsized compute, reserved pricing, migration cost amortization, and operational savings projections for each platform.
GCP Credit Negotiation
Structured the GCP MAP credit application, qualifying ~$3.4M in migration incentives by mapping eligible workloads, timelines, and program gates to the credit program requirements.
CCoE Operating Model
Designed the Cloud Center of Excellence charter, governance policies, RACI, and enablement roadmap — giving the client a ready-to-operate cloud governance structure from day one.
Phase 2 SOW Closure
Drove the assessment through to commercial close — scoping the 500+ VM Phase 2 migration engagement, aligning on pricing and milestones, and securing signature on the execution SOW.
| Deliverable | Description | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Readiness Assessment | Full CRA covering 759 apps — CloudScape scoring, dependency mapping, and readiness findings | PPTX + XLSX |
| 3-Way Cloud Selection Report | Scored GCP / AWS / Azure comparison with recommendation narrative and financial rationale | PPTX |
| 5-Year TCO Financial Model | Compute rightsizing, reserved pricing, migration costs, and savings projections for each cloud | XLSX |
| Application Complexity Matrix | CloudScape-scored disposition for all 759 apps with wave sequencing and migration strategy per tier | XLSX |
| GCP Credit Package | MAP credit documentation, eligible workload scoping, and milestone-based credit drawdown schedule | DOCX + XLSX |
| CCoE Design & Operating Model | CCoE charter, governance policy framework, RACI, tagging taxonomy, and enablement roadmap | PPTX + DOCX |
| Migration Wave Plan | 4-wave migration schedule with resource requirements, tooling stack, and go/no-go criteria per wave | XLSX + PPTX |
| Executive Summary Deck | C-suite readout: GCP recommendation, savings summary, credits, risk register, and Phase 2 scope | PPTX |