A couple of days ago The Open Group, a key standards body for enterprise architecture, has just published a new book, Cloud Computing for Business, which explores the business case for cloud computing and when to stay away. The book offers a good overview of the definition, benefits and practical use of cloud services.
Being written by The Open Group, it has been audited and reviewed by a wide audience of cloud specialists from IBM and other large IT firms. In my humble opinion a must read for all Cloud Services professionals as it offers a unified language in communication towards cloud clients. The book is free to download for all Open Group members, like IBM.
An interesting review by Forbes of this book summarizes 9 questions from the book to consider, as a client, before jumping into a cloud initiative. These questions offer early insight into how much of ´a fit´ transition to cloud services will be given the current coupling of business processes to technology implementations.
- Is Your Business Situation “Vertical”?
- Is There Competitive Differentiation in Your Processes?
- Is the Differentiation IT Based?
- Are There Any Impediments to Outsourcing?
- Are There Impediments to Cloud Adoption?
- Is the Primary Business Driver “Cloud Compatible”?
- Is the Application Insulated from Changes to the Business Process?
- Will the Cloud Solution Be a Platform?
- Are the Hardware, Operating System and Application Custom-Made or Specialized?
The Open Group also supports other Cloud centric initiatives like the “Cloud Manifesto” and “Cloud Security Alliance”, all can be found at http://www.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/
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