8 questions that will dominate enterprise cloud adoption

Brandon Butler | June 14, 2012

Enterprises have spent the past few years considering if they'll embrace cloud computing.

Enterprises have spent the past few years considering if they'll embrace cloud computing. For the many that have made the move, their attention has now turned to managing the cloud and getting business value from it, says IDC Chief Cloud Analyst Frank Gens.

As IT transitions from the "if" to the "how" phase, enterprises are wrestling with a slew of fresh questions. On the infrastructure side, will a public or private cloud be used? Which vendors are best to work with -- legacy IT players or emerging cloud companies? Which mobile device operating systems should be used to enable access to cloud software and what platforms should be used to build next-generation cloud applications?

Those questions were the focus of discussion Wednesday morning at the Cloud Leadership Forum, a three-day event in Santa Clara sponsored by IDC and IDG Enterprise (Network World is an IDGE company).

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Enterprises are undoubtedly moving to the cloud. One data point: 75% of respondents to a survey by CIO Magazine say they plan to significantly increase spending on the cloud in the next year. Half of those respondents say they have a "cloud-first" strategy for applications and infrastructure. Still, major questions remain about how the cloud will be managed to create real value for businesses. Gens and IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant ran through the top eight questions that will dominate top-level IT cloud discussions in the next year:

1) What is the right perspective?

A starting point for developing a cloud strategy is determining what your enterprise can and should use the cloud for. "Cloud is most interesting when it's not just about how the CTO can make it happen, but it's about what can make the CEO excited about what it can do for the business," Gens says. The cloud can be an entire service architecture that can change IT staffing, cost structures and business processes, for the better or worse depending on how it's implemented.

The emergence of cloud, Gens says, marks an evolution in IT platforms. The first platform in the early days of enterprise computing was around the mainframe and terminal model. A second platform embraced the Internet and a client-server model, which was dominated by the PC.

"Right now we're in the middle of the forming of a third platform," Gens says, with the cloud at the back end of it. Meanwhile, the front end is moving beyond the PC by enabling mobile devices to be the main access point to the cloud.

2) What's the right pace for cloud adoption?

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