Cyber LIVE London: Cloud Migration Strategies Panel
Migrating to the cloud may sound like a default move in the digital age, but it’s a decision that requires precision, preparation and pragmatism.
Speaking on the Cyber Stage at Tech & AI LIVE London 2025, a diverse panel discussed cloud migration strategies.
Panellists included:
- Paul Jennings, Head Of Technology Services at Kingston University
- Ange Johnson de Wet, Head of Engineering and Director at NatWest Group
- Syed Shabih Abbas, Senior Director at DXC Technology
- Jason Normanton, Head of Cloud Security Architecture & DevSecOps at Check Point Software Technologies
The panellists offered candid insights drawn from their own experiences in cloud transformation projects.
The case for cloud — and why some are pulling back
Jason kicked off by outlining the core advantages of cloud computing.
Foremost among them: ditching upfront capital investment in favour of an opex model, scalability and tapping into a host of services that would otherwise be out of reach.
“You’ve got scalability, and you’ve also got the ability to stand on the back of giants,” he said, referring to the value-add of established cloud providers.
For Syed, transformation — not cost — is now the key driver.
“If you're really looking at scaling that next-gen technology, that’s where you want to move to the cloud,” he explained.
Yet not all workloads are cloud-ready.
Paul emphasised that “some services won't sit in the cloud”, particularly those involving heavy CCTV infrastructure.
For him, cloud adoption at Kingston University is about minimising data centre footprint while increasing service agility.
Despite the momentum, concerns persist.
“Unless you completely change the way you manage your finances for cloud, you will overspend by 30%,” warned Ange, citing data from Gartner and Google.
Egress charges, application complexities and unrealistic timelines have led some organisations to abandon or reverse migrations altogether.
Preparation over execution: the strategic breakdown
All panellists stressed the importance of proper planning.
Jason explained the value of full application inventories, wave plans and financial modelling before any technical steps are taken.
“Make sure that the assumptions you made in your planning stage are following through to your deployment stage,” he advised.
Syed offered his own framework, summarising the process as “P² + E + O²” — prepare and plan, execute, then operationalise and optimise.
“That square on both sides gives you the magnitude of time and energy that you should spend,” he noted.
The panel also discussed centralised versus decentralised team structures.
Ange underscored the need for patterns in large organisations.
“You might have 20 to 50 patterns,” she said, suggesting these can help teams navigate thousands of apps by categorising them by function or architecture.
The importance of a central cloud business office (CBO) was another common theme.
For Kingston, this unit incorporates strategy, governance and compliance.
“We meet weekly,” Paul explained, noting that constant engagement across the business — not just IT — is crucial to success.
Cost control, culture shifts and the sustainability debate
Cost overruns were a recurring concern.
“Your bill will never get smaller,” Jason cautioned.
The panel agreed that a FinOps strategy must be in place from day one.
“It’s a multi-dimensional scheme,” Syed said, stressing that FinOps must span hybrid environments.
Chargeback models, application tagging and automation were also flagged as effective ways to manage spend.
“Tagging is not trivial,” Paul warned, underscoring that proper cost attribution takes sustained effort.
That said, cloud does bring agility.
“Now I can take out my credit card, quickly spin something up… and see if it works,” Jason noted. This innovation flexibility, coupled with easier TCO reporting and observability, are strong business enablers.
The panel ended by tackling a broader, often overlooked concern: the geopolitical and environmental sustainability of cloud computing.
Concerns over data sovereignty and rising energy consumption were front of mind.
“Just to run a single generative AI model, it’s going to generate 300 tons of CO₂,” warned Syed.
In response, the panellists pointed to geographical redundancy, well-architected reviews and strategic vendor relationships as ways to mitigate risks.
But they all acknowledged that the conversation around cloud's long-term sustainability is far from over.
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