Cloud Value Realisation: Best Practices Discussion for Migration, Modernization and Cost Optimization
C-suites across verticals and company sizes are looking to re-invent their business with AI. To this effect, three domains of focus for IT leaders are: IT modernization, cost optimization, and ensuring resilience and control.
As the economic climate tightens, IT and business leaders are facing a sobering reality: moving to the cloud didn’t automatically result in a smaller bill or faster innovation. Today, the conversation has shifted from “How do we get there?” to “How do we actually realize the value we were promised?”
Only 12% of organizations IDC surveyed in September 2025 (IDC Multicloud Strategies Survey, EMEA) identified themselves as having an IT architecture that is mature, optimized and tightly aligned to business value or innovation.
If speed of adoption and scale of use were top considerations in the last “cloud first” decade, this decade it is about adding control with cloud economics, efficiency and sustainability.
These value pillars are driving IT investment decisions today. In fact, based on an IDC survey, “value for money” was among the highest rated attribute for selecting a cloud technology vendor partner. About a quarter of IT leaders IDC surveyed in December 2025 said they are “under utilizing or wasting” over 31% of their total cloud spend.
IDC, in partnership with Kloia and AWS, invites you to an exclusive executive roundtable designed to peel back the layers of Cloud Value Realization. The timing is pivotal as cloud and AI strategies take centerstage. In fact, workload modernization has become a high or top priority for 7 out of every 10 organizations in 2026, according to IDC research. The key question is to make the transformation and migration strategy cost-effective and successful. The actual ROI is often lost in the “messy middle”, the technical debt, unoptimized database workloads, skills shortages to operate efficiently in the cloud and legacy code that prevents true cloud-native agility.
We will address the “bill shock” head-on. In the current market, the long-term solution lies in FinOps-first modernization. We will explore how to move beyond simple “lift and shift”. We will discuss how to bridge the gap between business mandates and the engineering-level execution required to meet them. This is an opportunity to engage in a candid dialogue about the architectural discipline needed to turn the cloud into a genuine profit centre rather than a growing line item.
Agenda
IDC, AWS & Kloia Executive Dinner
One Day Event
Welcome & Champagne Reception
Welcome Address from IDC, AWS & Kloia
Archana Venkatraman
Senior Director Research, Cloud Data Management, IDC
Dorian Sezen
Partner & Founder, Kloia
Delegate Introductions
Starter Discussion Topic & Feedback – Change Imperatives
What are the current challenges and limitations of existing IT environment in meeting business expectations? What are the pressures on IT teams? How to build the case for IT modernization to budget holders?
Main Course Discussion Topic & Feedback – Hallmarks of True Cloud Migration, Modernization and Operations
From taking workload inventory to engineering migration and focusing on Day 2 operations that include security, cost optimization and continuous, transparent business value. How to work practical metrics and KPIs to track cloud value realization. How can leaders shift from reactive cost-cutting to proactive cost-engineering? What are low-hanging fruits to quickly optimise and how to set up FinOps discipline.
Dessert Discussion Topic & Feedback – Execution Excellence
There is often a disconnect between the vision and the technical execution on the ground. How do you ensure your cloud strategy doesn’t fail at the implementation phase due to a lack of deep engineering talent? What are the best practices on building or partnering for “Deep Tech” squads that can handle complex migrations that standard cloud engineers might avoid.
Coffee Served & Evaluations Forms Distributed
Event Close
Speakers
Archana Venkatraman
Senior Director Research, Cloud Data Management
IDC
Read Bio
Archana Venkatraman
Archana Venkatraman is a Senior Director for IDC’s European Datacenter Research. She covers datacenter technologies including software-defined infrastructures, storage and data management, virtualization, containers, hyperconverged infrastructure, infrastructure performance monitoring, systems management, application development, and cloud services.
Archana also leads IDC’s European thought leadership program on open source technologies. She also contributes to European Digital Transformation, DevOps, Blockchain and IoT research practices.
Before joining IDC, Venkatraman was the datacenter editor at Computer Weekly, the digital magazine and website for IT professionals based in London, where she focused on datacenters, server virtualization, storage, open source technologies, software-defined infrastructures, and cloud computing, liaising with enterprise CIOs and technology vendors to develop deeper insight into the enterprise IT industry. Venkatraman has a master’s degree in journalism from Mumbai University.
Event Sessions
Thursday, May 7 2026 6:30 pm | Location:
Welcome Address from IDC, AWS & Kloia
Dorian Sezen
Partner & Founder
Kloia
Read Bio
Dorian Sezen
Dorian Sezen is a cloud and DevOps consultant with more than two decades of experience in the software industry. His passion for technology began early, he started programming at the age of 13 using GW-Basic and became deeply involved with Linux technologies shortly after 1999. In 2002, he received the IBM Scholar Challenge award for developing a Linux Embedded Security Device.
Dorian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, an M.Sc. in System and Control Engineering, and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University.
Throughout his career, he has held senior technology leadership roles across telecommunications, banking, and e-commerce sectors, including positions as Solution Architect in Telecom Industry, Technology Director at Credit Europe Bank, and CTO at Ciceksepeti (an Amazon subsidiary).
He currently works as a Cloud and DevOps Consultant at Kloia, advising organisations on cloud transformation, platform engineering, and DevOps operating models.
Dorian is also the founder of two DevOps communities with more than 9,000 combined members, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among technology professionals:
DevOps Turkey – 7,000+ members
DevOps Underground UK – 2,000+ members
Event Sessions
Thursday, May 7 2026 6:30 pm | Location:
Welcome Address from IDC, AWS & Kloia
Partners
In Association With
AWS
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers more than 398 fully featured services spanning compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), security, and application development. With 123 Availability Zones across 39 geographic regions globally, and announced plans for 7 additional Availability Zones and 2 more AWS Regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Chile, AWS provides the infrastructure to support virtually any cloud workload.
Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, accelerate innovation, and reduce costs. AWS continues to invest in expanding its global footprint and service capabilities to help organizations of all sizes transform their businesses and achieve their goals.
