Integrating Clouds Into the IT Infrastructure

Grazed from BaselineMag. Author: Samuel Greengard.

Over the last few years, IT and business executives have witnessed a profound shift in enterprise computing. While organizations continue to rely on internal data centers to manage an array of tasks, clouds have drifted into the mainstream of IT and business.

"Clouds are becoming the foundation for a new IT platform," says Mike Pearl, U.S. cloud computing leader for PwC consulting. "Organizations are combining IT assets in order to create far greater value. In many cases, they’re able to react to market dynamics faster and more effectively."…

Of course, combining existing IT infrastructure—usually legacy systems—with cloud offerings, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a-Service (SaaS), is no simple task. As organizations plug in a growing assortment of cloud services, a number of practical and technical challenges emerge. Among them: how best to break down silos and integrate processes? How to manage data across systems and software? How to address shadow IT? And how to establish adequate governance and security measures?…

Read more from the source @ http://www.baselinemag.com/cloud-computing/integrating-clouds-into-the-it-infrastructure/