Cloud computing is proliferating and taking over the world of IT as we know it. Cloud computing also grows more complex and multi‐faceted daily. Organizations can create their own private cloud infrastructures in‐house, sign up for services from public cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure, or create hybrid environments. Other vital choices come close behind. Architects and engineers must deal with an array of connections, integrations, portability issues among clouds, resource options, orchestration, storage, and more. And somehow it must all be managed and maintained.

You can probably see why a carefully thought‐out and detailed approach to cloud computing — a strategy, in other words — is so important.