BP’s Modernization and Migration Journey

The new CEO from BP, Bernard Looney, introduced a new strategy and approach to reinventing BP as a company by moving away from their identity as an oil and gas company to an energy company focused on driving their ambition to be net-zero by 2050 in alignment with the Paris agreement. So as you can see, BP is waist-deep in the process of rebuilding their entire organization’s operating model.

Keisha explains how it played out: Initially, our driving factors were around technology, trying to ensure that we were doing the latest and greatest innovative activity around infrastructure while looking at our cost over time and the fixed cost for optimization. Then we transitioned. given the fact that we're not a technology company, we're an oil and gas company, we had to realign to ensure that we were focused on the added commercial value tethered to our new business strategy. Innovation and automation were absolutely key in making our ambitions and strategic goals real. We deemed cloud technology to be foundational towards a modernized and migrated BP.

For us, the answer was both. Modernization and migration were partners, but this sequence can vary depending on the landscape of your situation and the needs of your company. As we looked across our landscape, the applications we’re in, as well as our infrastructure we concluded that modernization and migrations needed to operate in parallel with one another. It just made sense to not just do a lift and shift or just straight migrations without considering the objective from a technology and business perspective.

Don’t suffer from analysis paralysis by sitting around planning out the perfect migration or modernization effort. Quite frankly, you need to just get in there, get your hands dirty doing assessments, understanding them, prioritizing them around maintaining operations. Consider the risk of into serviceable life, what those threats are, and how will you address those threats.

Start by cutting your teeth on the low-hanging fruit, the simpler things to build up your capabilities. Trial and error was par for the course when revamping our business model.

For us, taking a step back to understand our situation, where we were, where our business is trying to go, and what our overall objectives and goals gave us clarity. We're not a technology shop, we run and operate an energy business and we need to align our understanding, objectives, and overall end goals on what’s the best for us to deliver for the customers we serve.