Managing the Transition to Cloud Based Service Delivery

Download this Corporate IT Forum Output Report. The report has been produced from input from 18 delegates representing 15 organisations, including representatives from the media, construction, healthcare, retail, energy, local government, legal, financial services, mapping, manufacturing, food and drink, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals industries.

The Forum's 2010 'Turning Cloud Services into Business Reality' report noted that 'Cloud services can make it easier to respond to shifting business needs while removing many of the IT management burdens that can suck up time and money', but also warned that 'there are many areas in which it will never work, for reasons of legacy consistency, security containment, geographical reach, etc.'

Now, the opportunity to enhance flexibility and better manage costs and support requirements is encouraging many organisations to look more closely at the Cloud as a solution to their service delivery requirements. Positive feedback from early adopters highlights fast deployment, ease of use, and responsiveness to fluctuating business usage levels.

However, many potential Cloud customers remain concerned about the effective transition of services and processes and the upholding and prioritisation of service levels, and are wary of the possible risks, from the history and financial risk of who is offering it, to ongoing client concerns about where data is being held and its security.