---
title: "Adapting Operating Models"
description: "From reactive IT operations to cloud-native delivery: DevOps, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD and modernised ITIL — and the organisational changes that make technology effective."
hero:
  tagline: "The technology is deployed. Now the real transformation begins: how teams work, who is responsible for what — and how to move from 'we operate IT' to 'we deliver value'."
  illustration:
    name: product
    position: right
sidebar:
  order: 0
  label: "Overview"
hideLinkCard: true
source_url: "https://framework.stackit.cloud/adoption/adapting-operating-models/"
source_file: "docs/adoption/adapting-operating-models/index.mdx"
---

## What this chapter does for you

Cloud technology does not automatically change how your organisation develops and operates software. Many organisations have the same long deployment cycles after migration, the same silos between development and operations, the same manual processes — just now in the cloud.

This chapter addresses the organisational changes that make cloud effective: how teams are structured, how responsibility is distributed, how change management and incident response are adapted to cloud speed — and how to measure whether the transformation has actually taken place.

<CardGrid>
  <Card title="Restructure teams">
    The model of stream-aligned teams with genuine operational responsibility — and how a platform
    engineering team enables all others without becoming a bottleneck.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Infrastructure as Code">
    Why clicking in the console must no longer be the standard — and how Infrastructure as Code
    delivers reproducibility, security and speed simultaneously.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Adapt ITIL to cloud speed">
    Which change management processes must work differently in the cloud — and how to define
    Standard Changes so that compliance and agility are not opposites.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Measure success">
    The four DORA metrics as an objective measure of delivery performance — with benchmarks and a
    realistic improvement roadmap.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>

## The cloud-native operating model

![Operating Model Overview](./files/operating-model-overview.svg)

## When the operating model is not transformed

A financial services provider migrated 40 workloads to STACKIT in eight months. Technically a success. Organisationally a sobering experience.

**Deployment cycles: still six weeks.** Not because the technology was too slow — but because the change management process continued to route every patch through a three-person CAB committee.

**Manual configuration: still via the console.** Not because no IaC tool was available — but because nobody had learned to use it, and nobody was given the time.

**Costs: 60 % higher than budgeted.** Not because STACKIT is expensive — but because no team took ownership of its cloud cost share.

EUR 420,000 in annual additional costs. The migration had succeeded. The transformation had failed.

## Organisational workforce transition: the forgotten task

Cloud transformation creates new roles and changes existing ones. System administrators become platform engineers. Infrastructure teams become DevOps teams. Some roles that exist today will no longer be needed in three years — at least not in their current form.

Communicating this reality openly and actively shaping it — with clear qualification paths, fair transition processes, and the works council as a partner — is not only morally required. It is strategically necessary. Anyone who does not have these conversations will lose exactly the people who are most urgently needed for the transformation.

The **[DevOps & YBIYRI](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/devops-ybiyri/)** chapter addresses this with concrete team topologies and role transitions.

## Connection to other chapters

Adapting operating models presupposes **[Cloud Empowerment](/adoption/cloud-empowerment/)** — teams need the capability to practise new ways of working.

<Steps>
1. Clarify team structure with **[DevOps & YBIYRI](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/devops-ybiyri/)** — before technical details are decided.
2. Introduce **[Infrastructure as Code](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/iac/)** as the standard — not as an option.
3. Automate delivery with **[CI/CD pipelines](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/cicd/)** — bound to compliance gates.
4. Adapt **[ITIL to cloud reality](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/itil-modernisation/)** — without abandoning compliance.
5. Measure progress with **[DORA Metrics](/adoption/adapting-operating-models/dora-metrics/)** — objectively and regularly.

</Steps>