Cloud technologies offer enormous potential, but they also present companies with complex legal, technological and organizational challenges. An overarching initiative by several organizations has taken on this challenge and jointly established a structured, sustainable cloud governance framework. The aim was to make cloud use more efficient, secure and coordinated without creating additional organizational complexity. The focus was on harmonizing requirements from specialist departments including IT, security, legal and procurement – at eye level and with the involvement of all stakeholders. The result is a standardized and directly applicable modular system for governance, processes and documentation that can be integrated seamlessly into existing structures.

The framework not only reduces dependency on hyperscalers and monopolistic providers but also creates space for differentiated assessments of cloud risks and opportunities. The structured discourse enabled even extreme pro and con positions to be resolved and transformed into a sustainable, transparent consensus model. What is particularly noteworthy is that the participating organizations continued to develop live during the project without extensive reorganization. This produced not only immediately usable results but also long-term governance capability with regard to the digital transformation.