Four criteria to evaluate a strategy

A shift from selling packaged software to offering it on the cloud was a significant step and one that would need to venture into the world of the unknown. A strategy like this would require significant planning and strenuous implementation, adapting and taking corrective when necessary. Even after all that takes place, there is still the task of evaluating the strategy. With any strategy rollout, especially one as large as this, there are benchmarks, lessons learned, and best practices that can all be identified and documented. This is then used to make sure that this strategy was effective and in line with organizational and managerial goals to continually improve. Looking at Richard Rumelt's four criteria to evaluate a strategy, we can see the effectiveness of Adobe's strategy to become fully cloud-reliant.
The first, consistency, was shown in the organizational goal to shift to the cloud model. This goal was well communicated, accepted, and aligned all employees intentions and efforts toward this goal. Adobe was consistent in their messaging and destination. This would be a subscription based service provided to it's customers instead a boxed product.

The second, consonance, has to respond to external factors and respond in a strategic manner. Adobe realized that moving to the cloud model would provide a consistent revenue stream, offer a suite of products to consumers, and handle upgrades and releases from a much more controlled and streamlined manner.
The third, feasibility, is arguably where the most unknowns in this strategy lied. Adobe knew they could pull it off but it went better than expected and in a short period of time. This strategy was determined to be feasible which is why they pushed it forward but numerous studies, mountains of research, and a lot of resources went into this determination. Without the due diligence to determine feasibility, any strategy is doomed to fail.
Lastly, advantage, which is what sets this strategy apart. There must be an advantage to propel the company and offer something new, something different. Offering cloud based services was relatively new but offering all services to be cloud based was going to present an advantage. Adobe was able to reduce costs, generate a steady revenue stream, and offer products to it's customers immediately. That is almost a vision statement in and of itself.