Cloudonomics: The Business Value of Cloud Computing, + Website

CHAPTER 3

Cloud Strategy

As we discussed in the last chapter, one school of thought argues that IT—and thus the cloud—is a commoditized utility: Like running water or electricity, it’s nice to have but hardly strategic. This argument fails to explain the runaway success—in market capitalization, revenues, and profits—of the leading cloud service providers such as Google and Facebook. However, the popularity of the cloud and rebranding of everything as “cloud” has generated its own backlash; chief information officers (CIOs) can be forgiven for a note of caution in pursuing the cloud. But paralysis by analysis can be dangerous, because the world is accelerating to warp speed, and the cloud can play a vital role in supporting competitive strategy.

Hunter Muller is an author and the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of HMG Strategy. He runs exclusive workshops for CIOs around the country that provide a forum for peer-to-peer best-practice sharing and executive dialog on CIO issues. According to Muller, the cloud continues to be a priority topic for this community:1 CIOs are grappling with the issues and implications of the cloud as well as defining and refining their cloud strategies.

Moreover, according to Ravi Rajagopal, adjunct professor at New York University and vice president of cloud strategy and solutions and advisor to senior client executives at CA Technologies, CIOs today have deep interest in cloud yet are wrestling with defining, deriving, and measuring accurate ...