In the lead-up to gathering 140 Australian infrastructure leaders at Connected Cloud & DC Edge, we spoke to Robert Mamone, Acting Head of Cloud & Engineering at Coles Group to discuss their cloud journey and experience with optimising cloud services.

Speaking to Peter Hind, Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT, Mamone explained that the journey started with AWS and moved into Azure, where they are today, with Google Cloud Platform.

Robert explained that their journey started with AWS and moved into Azure, where they are today, with Google Cloud Platform as part of their multi-cloud strategy.

He stressed the importance of having a cloud strategy, setting guardrails, and ensuring the right size of deployments to support the business and avoid overspending effectively.

When asked about stopping sprawl and shadow IT, Robert discussed the need for governance and controls to provide a framework for teams to build effective solutions in a cost-effective way.

Coles built a cloud centre of excellence and created a self-serve capability through automation, leveraging partners like TerraForm Enterprise, to allow application teams to build their applications with the right level of access, security, and controls.

Their integration with Apptio Cloudability ensured they control their spending and pay for what they’re spending, which has been a key driver for success with cloud.

Regarding their move from AWS to Azure, Robert shared that it was a clear decision for them because Amazon was a competitor to Coles, and they didn’t want to give money to their competitors.

Since Coles was already a Microsoft shop, partnering with Microsoft was an easy decision. However, they also recently joined Google as part of their multi-cloud strategy.

Coles is looking to cut back on spending while providing teams with the resources to do their jobs effectively. Optimising cloud services is a journey that takes time, experience, and learning from vendors and partners to get there faster.

A cloud strategy, governance, and controls, and a consistent approach are critical elements for success.

At Connected Cloud & DC Edge, ADAPT gathers 140 CTOs, Heads of Cloud, Infrastructure, Data Centre, Architecture and Engineering from Australia and NZ’s largest enterprise, government and service provider organisations, responsible for ¼ of the region’s GDP.

Contributors
Peter Hind Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT
Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​ His primary areas of interest... More

Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​

His primary areas of interest are the potential of technology to transform the way organisations operate, the change management obstacles executives encounter in realising this potential, as well as the tactics and techniques leaders have deployed to overcome these difficulties.​

Peter now takes on multiple roles within ADAPT including the moderation of private events and roundtables, interviewing business executives about the strategies they are pursuing and assisting with the structuring of delegate surveys.​

He also interrogates and analyses ADAPT’s treasure trove of end-user and C-suite data.​

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Robert Mamone Acting Head Of Cloud & Engineering at Coles Group
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modernisation cloud