IT Outlook: Increasingly Cloudy

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Strategy  

Over the past five or so years, cloud computing has steadily expanded its reach, improved its performance, tightened its security and matured its offerings. In 2014, it looks like cloud computing will become a staple within the organization’s IT arsenal of prosperity leveraging tools. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what we can expect in the cloud computing space in 2014 and beyond.

First, let’s look at the “2014 Forecast for Cloud Computing”, courtesy of the CIO.com article (my commentary follows the quotes in italics):

1. “From Executives to Computing professionals the differences and trade-offs between private, public and hybrid cloud environments will become better understood, leading to better utilization of cloud offerings.” This would appear to be old news to those who have been familiar with the world of cloud computing and doesn’t really seem like an emerging trend.
2. “Operating organizations like HR and Marketing will by-pass IT and begin going direct to cloud providers for solutions.” This trend is somewhat troublesome should it come true as there is more to deploying information management resources than just subscribing to an outsourced service. Imagine if IT created its own HR organization or if production decided to establish a marketing organization. Clearly, those who exclude IT…

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