I answered a quora question and I like it so much that I’ll post it here
The question is:
Why is the architecture of the cloud depending only on the decisions made by the cloud professionals? Why are the cloud initiatives not linked to the product or business aspects?
My answer is:
Short answer: it should not.
Long answer:
While most tech people have a strong feeling that Cloud is the biggest thing in IT, it is not. Cloud is still in its infancy and represents less than 10% of the overall IT budget. The spend is too low for most companies to care enough to put checks and balances (i.e. governance). The IT department often manages the Cloud without real supervision, which creates the impression that tech is the only driver of Cloud projects.
But Cloud is growing, and the business is starting to notice. Looking at the Return on Investment of Cloud-based projects is not rare anymore, and business outcomes are the ultimate outcomes for the measure.
As usual, more control is both a curse and a blessing: with less freedom for IT innovation and more processes but with better proofs, that Cloud is the way forward at a bigger scale.
As you can guess, this transition is not smooth. Most cloud providers are not providing reports useful for non-tech departments (e.g. finance, procurement, PMO), and IT is not happy to lose autonomy. Making sure the Cloud and its benefits (scale and cost mostly) are correctly leveraged (tech) and are translated into business value (i.e. $ in various forms) is a big part of my day-to-day job at Strategic Blue (https://strategic-blue.com).
There is still a reputational risk for Cloud where everyone goes back to their Datacentre. If at large scale Cloud resources are seen as costlier than owning a DC, then the business might make the wrong decision of rollback.