An international investment firm (IIF) that specializes in investment services wealth management for organizations and individuals in more than 100 markets and 35 countries. IFF manages 1.7 trillion in investment assets and employs more than 50,000 people worldwide.

IIF wanted to create and deploy customer-facing computer applications in weeks instead of years, enabling them to retain and extend their leading market position and improve organizational agility. IIF was in the middle of transitioning to a hybrid cloud computing system with a private data center, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) user interface and proprietary applications for back-end server coding.

As IIF transitioned their infrastructure and application development to cloud-based systems, they recognized that their teams needed to work together more closely. Development teams needed more infrastructure and operations awareness while members of infrastructure, operations and IT service management needed more application development experience. The Chief Information Officer requested an assessment of employees existing skills and a tool to measure learning. The company sought a partner who could help them determine training paths.

Global Knowledge created an online assessment to evaluate the knowledge of individuals with regard to cloud computing and this led to a customized learning program for all new hires and existing staff.

By consulting with the vice-president of operations and vice-president of development to optimize their cloud strategy, we identified the best practices and organizational challenges. We engaged the IIF's human resources department for job descriptions, career paths, recruiting, retention and existing training information.

Global Knowledge developed career paths to help people transition from an existing role into new responsibilities. In total, nine career paths were defined that would help establish a common core understanding of cloud and process at the investment firm and help individual's transition into their new roles. The goal of this program was to build a unified cloud team, with a cloud-first mentality using best practices. We held training at the company to ensure employees adopted a common core of cloud computing knowledge.

IFF successfully migrated their technology to a hybrid cloud environment which increased their team's organizational agility. By leveraging cloud architecture best practices, team building and a common core of shared cloud computing knowledge they were able to increase the number of revenue-producing applications tenfold.

Through synchronous, on-site instructor-led training in Nashville, Tennessee and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Global Knowledge was able to help the organization create standardized language and process around the cloud through customized foundation classes. A total of 100 to 150 employees were trained at the company's offices or online. Through pre- and post-assessments IFF stakeholders were able to track the effectiveness of specific learning objectives. Students could progress through their learning paths to achieve their career transition. As a result, the CIO has tangible proof of the skills and knowledge teams have in relation to one another, helping the organization to facilitate their cloud implementation.