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

Challenges and Caveats

The short-term advantages of cloud-based apps are fairly obvious: Low initial cost and lots of prebuilt functionality. That means you can use the cloud as an innovation platform, a virtual test bed for experimenting with new techniques and new processes.

“It can be a very inexpensive platform,” says Lee. “You only need a few pennies to lease a Linux machine in the cloud. You can also take advantage of software as a service (SaaS) apps from companies like Salesforce.com and Google.”

There are downside risks, however. Interoperability is likely to crop up as an issue, at least in the initial stages. Security will be a challenge. When your data is spread across the cloud, how do you make certain that it's safe and secure? How do you move big chunks of it back and forth when you need it?

Vendor lock-in will be another issue to confront. What happens when vendors develop their own unique proprietary cloud solutions? Will these proprietary systems limit choice and reduce flexibility? Naturally enough, Lee encourages IT decision makers to consider open-source solutions as a way to avoid vendor lock-in. Clearly, there's a lot to think about.

There's little doubt, however, that the rapid consumerization of technology will drive more and more companies into the cloud, because that's where they'll find the inexpensive apps they need to satisfy the ever-changing demands of their end users.

Lesson

Interoperability is likely to crop up as an issue, at least in the initial ...