P3. Prefer the most abstract solution that can deliver the necessary end result

The public cloud offers managed services operating at significant economies of scale that can be a viable substitute for components of many enterprise applications that we presently run ourselves. Embrace managed services where the operation of such a service is a means to an end, rather than the core function, of a service delivery team.

The public cloud offers varying levels of abstraction in the form of service delivery models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) as well as varying levels of managed components within the broad category of Platform and Infrastructure as a Service. In short, if it does not add specific value for us to run something, and there is a cloud service that manages it for us, it makes sense to take advantage of that abstraction.

Abstraction is a central component of the value proposition of the public cloud. The public cloud compares much less favorably to on-premises deployment if one forgoes the opportunity to leverage its highly elastic and scalable abstractions.