It has been a couple of years now that cloud computing has come to be the hot topic of discussion amongst technology leaders. Since then, cloud has been promising to deliver cost effective and flexible IT services to enterprises. Talking out of experience, we at 9.9 Media have harnessed the power of cloud for most of our applications, and it has worked beautifully for us. But how are you, as technology leaders weighing cloud? Are you just talking about it or also walking the talk?

As a technology, cloud is beyond doubt the next big thing. Analysts predict the global cloud market to hit $121.1 billion by 2015. Rapid growth in revenues accrued from cloud portfolio of players like Google and Salesforce are forcing others to look at this space. Why else would a company like Microsoft that never had a cloud focus aggressively launch offerings in the cloud? Reports indicate that Microsoft would be spending 90 percent of its research budget on cloud computing.

I am increasingly coming across CIOs who are deploying cloud. At least, most CIOs I interact with have moved from ‘if’ to ‘when’ they will deploy  it.

This doesn't imply there are no challenges (which is why CIOs are at the ‘when’ stage and not at the ‘now’ stage). Besides security, there are issues related to compliance regulations and service availability.

I believe there will be breaches as long as there will be technology. Cloud vendors would need to go that extra mile here. I recently met a CIO who shared his journey to the cloud with me. While in talks with Google, he was apprehensive of his data being secure. It helped when Google’s CTO himself addressed his concerns. He ended up moving his collaboration suite to Google’s cloud. Security also depends on the mindset. Corporates were once reluctant to outsource their IP. It all changed with time. The rapid growth of KPOs is testimony of this change.

Meanwhile, IEEE is coming up with a set of cloud standards. It is a matter of time before the last few pieces of aligning governance, risk and compliance regulations too will fall into place.

Let me end by asking a simple question: Did you stop riding your bike when you saw your friend falling off his? Don’t focus on stray accidents. The faster enterprises adopt cloud, the faster the issues will be resolved. As they say, no risk, no gain. Let us know when and how you intend to adopt cloud.