Global Retail-Cloud Transformation

Modernising a global retail technology estate across 150+ markets, on a €150M programme delivered in 15 months.

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€4MAnnual operating savings

Business context

Global expansion across 150+ markets had driven scale and operating model complexity. The estate carried 1,200+ ageing applications, fragmented operations and siloed systems that slowed decisions and constrained growth.

Transformation challenge

Technology debt was increasing risk and reducing agility. The mandate was unambiguous: eliminate infrastructure debt, achieve regulatory compliance and build a platform capable of supporting the next decade of growth — without interrupting trade.

Strategic response

A hybrid cloud strategy aligned to business outcomes and industry best practice, delivered as four migration waves across 15 months with board-level governance from the outset.

Operating model: Global delivery was consolidated and service operations standardised, with named ownership for each capability and performance visible to the executive team.
Governance: Board-level oversight ensured alignment, risk control and value realisation, with clear decision rights, escalation paths and portfolio control across all four waves.
Technology: Application modernisation and migration into a governed cloud landing zone of 185 resource groups, with regional data centre exit and resilient architecture by design.

Executive decisions

Adopt a hybrid cloud operating model — balancing innovation, resilience and cost across 150 markets.
Sequence migration by environment and complexity, moving business-critical workloads last, to minimise disruption.
Establish executive governance early — accelerating decisions and clarifying accountability at every level.
Prioritise risk over delivery speed — sustaining business continuity across millions of transactions.
Design for long-term operational sustainability — scalable, cost-efficient cloud operations beyond the programme.

Devendra’s role

Programme scale describes the transformation. This describes the leadership contribution within it.

Transformation Leadership: Led the end-to-end hybrid cloud transformation across four migration waves, delivered in 15 months against an approved 21-month plan, without interrupting trade.
Executive Governance: Established board-level governance early, with clear decision rights, escalation paths and portfolio control across all waves.
Technology / Architecture Direction: Directed the hybrid cloud strategy, the governed landing zone of 185 resource groups and the regional data centre exit.
Portfolio Leadership: Sequenced the migration of a 1,200+ application portfolio in four waves by environment and complexity, from development and test systems to business-critical workloads, using a dependency register as the single source of truth.
Operating Model: Consolidated global delivery and standardised service operations with named ownership for each capability.

06 · Business outcomes

Verified results

Applications migrated: 1,200+Applications migrated
Markets: 150+Markets
Programme investment: €150MProgramme investment
CAPEX reduction in re-architected systems: 80%CAPEX reduction in re-architected systems
Annual savings: €4MAnnual savings
Months to deliver: 15Months to deliver
Data-centre footprint reduction: 45%Data-centre footprint reduction

80% CAPEX reduction in re-architected systems
€4M annual operating savings
1,200+ applications migrated
End-to-end delivery in 15 months

Leadership lesson

Large-scale transformation succeeds when executive alignment is established before technology decisions are made. Every major outcome traced back to one of five executive decisions taken early.