The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

Hot and Getting Hotter

Lee Congdon is the CIO at Red Hat, a global leader in open source software and services. He sees the move to cloud-based services as a true “paradigm shift,” right up there with the transition from mainframes to minis, the introduction of the PC, and the emergence of e-commerce.

I'm inclined to agree with him. The cloud is hot, and getting hotter. If we haven't reached a tipping point yet, we will soon. When you ask Lee how much of the IT infrastructure can be safely moved into the cloud today, his initial response is: “everything.” He adds quickly that it all depends on the organization, but his confidence and enthusiasm are undeniable. Here's the way Lee sees it, in his own words:

Most enterprises already outsource some things to the cloud. Procurement, payroll, benefits, banking, travel, Web conferencing, etc. I think it's a rare enterprise today that doesn't have something that could be called a cloud application of some sort.

That said, outsourcing to the cloud will be difficult for a lot of enterprises, particularly those that are highly regulated or not rewarded for taking risks, and those that have limited financial resources. Many enterprises haven't built up the skills or the capabilities for moving operations into the cloud. Your application interfaces and your architecture may need to be recrafted, and that takes work.

Cloud application management is still evolving. There are point solutions and tools that provide a good set of capabilities for ...