Aligning cloud vision with adoption

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Carlos Granada.

There is no denying that cloud computing is a disruptive IT strategy that is driving a services-oriented delivery model. But in many cases IT has struggled to align the vision and promise. Tactics often trump strategy, resulting in limited benefits, increased uncertainty and less control. For cloud adoption to succeed, an approach is needed that aligns strategy with a pragmatic approach to implementation, measured against business and organizational outcomes.

Cloud promises include reduced costs, infinite scalability of resources, IT agility necessary to meet shifting business demands, value, even IT transformation. But one of the most important benefits promised by cloud computing is that it will provide an organization with the agility to keep up with global economic factors, drive innovation and, most importantly, allow organizations to truly focus on what’s important, their customers…

Unfortunately, many IT organizations still approach cloud as a ‘box’ – either as a ‘boxed’ application delivered via the cloud, or as a ‘black box’ into which the enterprise dumps its applications, data, workloads and processes – with the hope of reducing IT spend and increasing agility, scalability and delivery of service to business process owners. This approach illustrates why cloud adoption rates have not met expectations, and why the gap keeps expanding as organizations continue to struggle…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2364273/cloud-computing/aligning-cloud-vision-with-adoption.html