Definitely not blowing our own trumpets 🎺  | Cloud Core.

This month I’d like to talk about our friends at Sponda — the Finnish real estate company.

Sponda decided to embrace cloud. And when I say embrace, I mean all the bells and whistles that come with a truly cloud-first approach. 

With a forward-thinking team and CTO, Sponda understood the need to embrace a truly cloud-first transformation, the way it should be done.

So, when it came to moving out of traditional data centres, Sponda didn't just migrate — they transformed. Every operation was streamlined, every system, every connection and every integration thought about. They didn't settle for half-measures; they went all-in.

And it paid off. 

🚀 Agility - Sponda increased customer satisfaction, retention and operating speeds.

💪 Cyber posture - They now have infallible, constantly monitored, fully backed-up systems. 

💰 Costs - With an optimised cloud approach, they’re saving significant time, resources (and therefore costs) and will do so long into the future. 

And we’re talking about a full cloud journey here, right from assessment and migration all the way to managed services, FinOps, and data capabilities.

And here's the best part: Sponda's not stopping there. They're future-proofing their business with AI, leveraging the cloud to stay ahead of the curve.

It's a textbook example of a cloud-first transformation done right.

And look, we’re not the type to blow our own trumpets at Nordcloud. But here’s what Sponda’s CTO Timo said about our relationship:

“We believe Nordcloud are the best pure cloud player in the market. And they’ve proven that at Sponda.”

I mean. Toot toot 🎺🎺

Check out the full story here.

🤔 Not there yet? That’s OK. 

On the now well-known cloud transformation scale of ‘zero to Sponda’, it’s OK if you’re not quite full Sponda just yet.

You might have a few IT ops headaches that mean you’re not quite seeing the agility or cost savings you thought you would. It’s not fair, but it's a fact - that central IT gets stuck managing growing pains when the organisation is driving digital transformation.

But there are some IT ops headaches you don’t have to live with. 

In this infographic, we summarise common IT ops headaches that come during Day 2 digital transformation – and how to cure them.

Check it out here.

🌎 Earth Day is next week.

Have you got it in your calendar?

Well, it’s OK if you haven’t. But Earth Day is next Monday 22 April, and it's a really good reminder to reflect on sustainability, IT and the cloud (don’t worry - we’re not here to scare-monger you or give you the hard-sell.)  

We’ve learned a lot since Earth Day last year – and we’re still learning. 

If, like us, you’re curious and passionate about sustainable IT, here are 3 stories you might find interesting:

Curious about what leading companies, cloud providers and legislators are doing right now in the sustainable IT space? 

Two of our experts discuss this and other questions in a recent episode of our podcast, Cloud Core. 

You can listen to the episode (or add it to Your Episodes to listen later) here. 

Interested in the nitty gritty – the levers your teams can actually pull in cloud to lower energy consumption and emissions? 

In this blog, one of our data experts introduces data design best practices if sustainability is a priority for your business, with a focus on intermittent data pipelines. 

Questioning whether your organisation’s IT-related emissions are really significant enough to warrant attention? 

This infographic explores the (often overlooked) environmental impact of IT functions – and how you can get started making it better. 

That’s all for now, but we’ll be exploring this topic a little more in a couple of months.

📰  What we’ve been talking about this month

🌐 McKinsey: The state of cloud computing in Europe

💚 How Neste is building a sustainable future

☁️ Key Google Cloud Next announcements

🤓 Microsoft splits Teams and Office

🌚 Not all clouds are good

🗓️ Some dates for your diary:

Events

• 18 April - Munich: Global Azure Munich Meetup
  “Our event, the all-global Azure community event, has set a new global standard for community events.” Not bad, eh? Secure your spot.
• 18-20 April - Wrocław + Virtual: Global Azure
  An opportunity to explore the secrets of Azure, exchange experiences with other passionate techies and develop your skills. Register here.
• 19 April - Munich: Azure DEV Meetup
  At the Azure DEV Meetup Munich we share experiences about architecture, patterns, tools and other cool stuff in the context of Azure. Join us.
• 19 April - Helsinki + Virtual: Mimmit Koodaa
  Join Antti Honkanen for a discussion on OpenAI and coding. Plus there’ll be a couple of other Nordcloud topics: “Three Women, Three Paths” and an LLM-centric hands-on session. Find out more here.
• 24 April - London: AWS Summit
  We’ll be joining forces with our friends at IBM and speaking about what we’ve been up to with the NHS and AWS. Register here.
• 24 April - Munich: Google Developer Group, Google NEXT Watch Party
  Just after Google NEXT 24, spend an evening with pizza and drinks, watch a few of the Next sessions, and talk about new announcements. Register here.
• 25 April - Amsterdam: Azure Platform Engineering meetup
  Join us for Azure fun including a presentation from Robin Smorenburg on Utilizing Terraform according to the GitOps method. Join us here.
• 14 May - Germany, Webinar: Ready for NIS-2?
  Join Monika Josi and Simon Zander for a webinar around the innovations, challenges and needs for the NIS-2 directive for businesses. Register now.
• 15 May - Berlin: Cloud Connoisseurs Club, after AWS Summit Berlin
  Cast away a long day at the AWS Summit Berlin, hop aboard for dinner, cocktails and some insightful discussions along the Spree. Save your spot.

Cloud Training

• 22-24 April - Virtual: Cloud Operations on AWS. Register here.
• 25 April - Virtual: Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure. Register here.
• 13-15 May - Virtual: Architecting on AWS. Register here.
• 16 May - Virtual: AWS Cloud Practitioner. Register here.
• 20-22 May - Virtual: Advanced Architecting on AWS. Register here.
• 21-23 May - Virtual: Security Engineering on AWS. Register here.
• 25 April - Virtual: Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure. Register here.

🎧 Something to listen to in the home office

Here’s some songs with trumpets. Just because.

Thanks for reading, 

I’ll be back with more fresh thoughts next month.