Four Key CIO Challenges in the Transition to the Cloud

November 24, 2010

Four Key CIO Challenges in the Transition to the Cloud

Software vendors must help enterprises recognize the Cloud’s potential for business transformation and the ten core disciplines needed for effective Cloud IT management.

By Mike West, Saugatuck Technology

As enterprises transition to the Cloud, taking advantage of new capabilities, new technologies and new economics, CIOs are faced with the daunting task of deciding what, when and how to invest in the Cloud and how to transform not only their systems portfolios, but their organizations and business processes. Saugatuck Technology research clearly shows that Cloud transitions typically impact the IT organization in very significant ways, affecting roles and responsibilities, organizational structure, governance, architecture, budget process, employee retention, asset management and customer relationships.

The shift in acquisition of business and IT resources from on-premise licensed software solutions to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and from on-premise data center infrastructure to Public and Private Cloud deployment continues to transform the information technology sector. In this article, we present an overview of the four key challenges we have seen CIOs dealing with, as enterprises transition to the Cloud.

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