Establishing a Cloud Center of Excellence
Background
Samtek assists customers in establishing and operationalizing a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE). We offer advisory and implementation services to design, stand up, and mature a CCoE that aligns with the agency’s organizational mission, compliance needs, workforce structure, and hybrid/multi-cloud goals. This article captures a high level summary of our approach and the services we provide.
High Level Overview of Services Provided
Strategy & Operating Model Design: Our Team works with the appropriate stakeholders to define the purpose and scope of the CCoE aligned with the agency priorities. We evaluate organizational structure, cloud maturity, and collaboration models to make recommendation on an operating model for the CCoE. We collaborate with key stakeholders (both government and contractors) and governance participants to develop a charter that includes the CCoE mission, roles, goals and success metrics. We establish specialized Communities of Practice (CoP) that federate into the CCoE to promote dedicated focus and specialization in core capability areas like Cloud Governance, Cloud Architecture, Cloud Security, Cloud Networking, Identity & Access Management, Multi Cloud Integration, Cloud FinOps, Platform Engineering/ DevSecOps and Hybrid Cloud Use Cases.
Capability Framework Definition: For each core capability area listed above we perform a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) analysis that shape our recommendation for service definitions (level of service to provide in each area, RACI charts), engagement models (intake, advisory, escalation etc.) and support levels (advisory level support vs. hands on engagements) for the organization.
Processes, Playbooks and Tooling: We establish workflows for cloud onboarding, reviews, approvals, and escalations. We organize Architecture Review Boards (ARBs), Change Advisory Boards (CABs) and Security Gate Criteria (like a Production Readiness Checklist). We create Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates in industry standard multi-cloud frameworks like Terraform or OpenTofu formalizing best practices and enterprise guidance in reusable modules that can be community maintained using an agency internal “inner sourced” model for code contributions.
Stakeholder Enablement: We define training programs and launch knowledge management tools and internal documentation portals (like cloud.cms.gov at CMS) to enable continuous upskilling and knowledge dissemination. We facilitate regular stakeholder engagements (office hours, roadshows, brown bags, working groups) to ensure continuous collaboration with the user base and ample opportunity for feedback collection.
CCoE Operationalization: Finally, we define Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Reporting Dashboards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to outline success criteria for CCoE performance. We formalize feedback loops and CCoE backlog management for continuous improvement within the CCoE, and provide a comprehensive plan for ongoing support (including Transition planning).
Deliverables:
| Deliverable | Description |
| CCoE Charter | Mission statement, organizational model, goals and governance structure |
| Stakeholder & Capability Map | RACI Chart identifying roles across cloud functions |
| Service Catalog & Operating Model | Intake process, decision models, support tier and service definitions |
| Governance Framework | Tagging, security baselines, policy-as-code templates |
| Cloud Architecture Standards & Reference Architectures | Reference Architectures, best practices, reusable IaC modules |
| Performance Metrics & KPIs | Metrics to track value delivered by the CCoE (time to onboard, time to ATO etc.) |
| Communication & Engagement Plan | Plan for internal messaging, onboarding and stakeholder outreach |
| Workforce Enablement Plan | Training roadmap and role-based competency framework |
Customer Information Needed for a Quote:
Organizational Information: Organizational Chart and Systems Inventory with mapping. Current Cloud Maturity Level and deployment footprint. Current stakeholder roles.
Scope & Timeline: Desired CCoE Capabilities and Support Model (Governance Only vs Hands On Support), Delivery Model (Advisory vs Co-delivery) and Target Timelines.
Policies, Tools & Technology: Any current cloud governance policies, tagging standards, IaC libraries. Tools already in place for Cloud Observability, Billing, Security or Provisioning. Information about common or approved application technology stacks. Available Staffing Resources: Government or contractor staff to embed in or transition to the CCoE. Availability of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for stakeholder interviews and working sessions.
