In Summary
- Cloud adoption is accelerating, but without strong governance it can lead to rising costs, risks and inefficiencies.
- A Cloud Governance Assessment provides rapid insights into cost, security, performance and sustainability.
- Embedding governance builds visibility, resilience and long-term value from cloud.
Cloud has become the foundation for digital transformation, but many organisations still struggle to unlock its full potential. The promise is clear: flexibility, efficiency and innovation. In practice, however, environments are often built quickly, without the right architecture, security or cost controls.
We see this regularly where organisations move fast to the cloud, but then face compliance challenges, spiraling costs and inconsistent performance. The State of Digital Government Review highlights that cloud adoption has been accelerated through dedicated budgets equating to £1.3 billion, underpinned by a cloud-first policy and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) cloud security guidance. It also reports that 46% of survey respondents said more than 60% of their estate is now hosted on cloud, although many of these migrations have not been fully rebuilt for the cloud. The review further shows that adoption is uneven across the public sector. For example, around 63% of the Home Office estate is hosted on cloud, while much of local government and NHS workloads remain on-premises.
Fast to cloud, slow to control
The challenge is no longer just speed; it’s about making informed choices that lead to sustainable outcomes. Common issues include:
- security gaps and inconsistent deployment practices
- overspending due to over-provisioned or misaligned resources
- compliance risks in regulated sectors like finance and utilities
- operational inefficiencies and configuration drift
Without effective governance, cloud costs can spiral unpredictably, leaving organisations with fragmented environments, poor visibility and missed opportunities for optimisation. Left unchecked, this risks regulatory non-compliance and long-term overspend.
From framework to function: governance that delivers
Our Cloud Governance Assessment is designed to address these challenges head-on. It delivers a rapid, AI-powered review of a cloud estate, aligned to the Well-Architected Framework (WAF), which is the industry-standard model that helps organisations build secure, efficient and resilient cloud environments. It’s structured around six pillars: security, reliability, performance efficiency, operational excellence, cost optimisation and sustainability.
While the WAF provides clear principles, the reality is that most organisations have yet to fully embed governance across these areas. Research shows that many organisations are still struggling to achieve this in practice, with almost eight in ten estimating that a significant share of their cloud spend goes to waste due to gaps in governance and visibility (TechMonitor, 2024). This is why governance can no longer be treated as optional. Embedding it today builds resilience and creates the conditions to seize tomorrow’s opportunities with confidence.
This is where Sopra Steria’s Cloud Governance Assessment comes in, turning governance principles into clear, practical action. But how does our assessment deliver against these pillars?
Cost
Our assessment identifies overspending, under-utilised services and optimisation opportunities, giving organisations the clarity to align spend with business value. Without governance, costs often go unchecked, with teams deploying resources in silos and no central accountability. Governance enforces oversight, ensuring spend is transparent, justified and tied to outcomes that matter.
Security
We review identity, access and data protection to close gaps that could expose sensitive information or trigger compliance failures. Inconsistent controls are one of the clearest signs of weak governance. By embedding governance into policies and processes, organisations move beyond reactive fixes to a proactive security posture that protects trust and reduces regulatory risk.
Architecture
We assess whether environments follow scalable, best practice designs. Poor architecture creates technical debt and limits agility. Governance establishes the design principles and approval processes that stop short-term fixes from becoming long-term problems, enabling estates to evolve without division.
Reliability
Our assessment validates resilience against outages and misconfiguration, especially critical in regulated and public sector environments. Governance ensures reliability isn’t left to chance; by enforcing testing, recovery planning and accountability, it turns resilience into a predictable, measurable capability.
Performance
Our assessment ensures workloads deliver value rather than inflating cost or slowing innovation. Without governance, teams frequently over-provision resources in anticipation of uncertain demand, leading to waste and inefficiency. Governance provides the guardrails to right-size workloads, track utilisation and keep performance aligned to business goals.
Sustainability
We review environmental impact, identifying ways to cut energy use and reduce carbon emissions through smarter workload and resource allocation. Governance ensures sustainability is built into everyday decisions, making it a measurable objective that drives both efficiency and environmental responsibility.
What the Cloud Governance Assessment Delivers
Our Cloud Governance Assessment combines speed, clarity and depth. Within hours, automated dashboards generate insights tailored to industry and regulatory needs, giving an accurate view of cloud posture and preventing configuration drift through continuous assessment. Our Nebulai for Cloud platform integrates AI to deliver governance reviews that are faster, cost-effective and repeatable, a practical way to embed governance into business-as-usual. Backed by strong partnerships with Microsoft and AWS, public sector pedigree, and accelerators for migration and legacy modernisation, we bring both technical expertise and proven delivery in secure, regulated environments.
The outcome is clear: clients gain visibility across their estate, actionable insights, and a roadmap that balances compliance, cost, performance and sustainability. Above all, the assessment is a strategic enabler, giving organisations the confidence and direction to unlock long-term value from cloud.
Ready to take control? Book a Cloud Governance Assessment with our team and unlock the full potential of your cloud estate.