This is the time of year when AR professionals ask analysts what they’re planning for next year. I don’t plan a year in advance. I tend not to even plan a quarter in advance. I write when the mood seizes me, which is probably unfortunate, but given that I write a lot it’s… okay-ish?

But I have a bunch of things drafted (either fully or partially) and that should get released in Q1 of next year. I have a general goal of trying to ensure that I back the advice I write for cloud architects with something for the CIO and other executive leaders that provides a bottom-line strategic summary, and/or material for the other teams the architects work with, so that I publish stuff as part of  a set, either alone or in collaboration with analysts in other areas.

Cloud resilience (January): It’s increasingly common for clients to ask about architectural standards for HA/DR in the cloud. This note dissects why cloud services break, how to set architectural standards for HA and DR/failover (i.e. when to be multi-AZ, when to do cross-region failover, etc.), and some basic guidance on stability patterns (use of partitioning, bulkheads, backpressure, etc.)

Cloud self-service (January): Thankfully, most organizations are moving away from a service catalog-driven approach to cloud self-service in favor of cloud-native self-service. This note is about how to empower technical teams with self-service, while still providing appropriate governance.

The cloud operating model (February): Many clients are asking about how to organize for the cloud. This will be a triple-note set — one on designing a cloud operating model, one on implementing the operating model, and a colorful infographic summarizing the concept for the CIO and other executive leaders. It combines my previous guidance on Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE), structuring FinOps and cloud sourcing, etc. with some new work on program management, and takes a deeper look at all the ways you can put this stuff together.

Cloud concentration risk (March): Concentration risk is a hot topic right now, especially in regulated industries. This concern spans IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and the dependencies are not always clear, so many organizations have concentration risk they’re not aware of. I intend to write a baseline note that other analysts have committed to contextualizing for audiences in different industries, as well as for cloud managed and professional services providers. While the sourcing risk of concentration remains minimal, the availability risks of concentration can be meaningful. An organization’s risk appetite and the business benefits of concentration should determine what, if any, steps they take to address concentration risk.

IaaS+PaaS provider evaluation update (April): Getting updated vendor evaluation research out in April basically means spending a good chunk of the first quarter doing that evaluation. (My January notes have already been written. And the February ones are mostly complete, so the schedule above isn’t implausible.) We are not currently discussing the form that this evaluation will take. Gartner management will communicate appropriately when the time comes (i.e. please don’t ask me, as I’m not at liberty to discuss it).