On a sweltering Circle Line journey home, devoid of oxygen and desperate for non-condensing moisture, I find the time to reflect on the 2nd Cloud Circle Forum, 2010. The phrases ‘utility computing’, ‘paradigm shift’ and an ‘infinite number of monkeys-aaS’ play feverishly on my mind, psychotropically altered by the 36 degree heat and near suffocation. Yet thinking beyond my current Dantesque predicament, the day’s events were an altogether cooler and more inspiring affair.

The 2nd Cloud Circle Forum delivered well balanced and thought provoking set of presentations to an appreciative community of business leaders and IT professionals. The unfolding story of Cloud computing now seems less anecdotal, even if overuse of the term has left it poorly defined for that critical C-level audience. The speakers did an excellent job of slicing and dicing cloud into its various enterprise flavours and layers, each cautious to highlight (in true British tradition) that their definition was by no means the definition.

Several of the presentations focused on the very real risks involved in undertaking a Cloud initiative and on the cautious and risk aware manner that such an initiative should be approached with. It was reassuring to hear this degree of transparency from vendors and indicative of the ongoing maturity of Cloud based approaches and those operating in the Cloud space. This was reinforced by an undercurrent of inevitability that removed the need for the frantic evangelising seen over the last 3 years. As consultants and vendors grow their portfolio of projects, case studies and clients and observe the timely and considered response of Cloud providers to the concerns of the business community, their sell is becoming easier and more demonstrable. Efficient utilisation of technology, business agility, reduced TCO and reduced time to market are all easy sells when the magnitudes of improvement are demonstrably large. So what’s the hold-up? A few of the obvious concerns covered were security, compliance and contractual terms and conditions. But as some speakers pointed out, the high degree of focus on these issues over the last 5 years in the outsourcing and managed services space has resulted in the inevitable hardening of technologies and frameworks resulting in Cloud security offerings that potentially eclipse in-house capabilities.

Corporate procurement was cited on more than one occasion as a major blocker to the adoption of Cloud. This is reinforced by one comment that bringing Cloud concepts to the non-IT C-level community has been of limited success. This inevitably reduces Cloud initiatives to an exercise in IT cost reduction on a project by project basis and limits its inclusion in the business strategy, where its real potential for returns and benefits lie. For some vendors, the biggest challenge is getting this key message into businesses at the appropriate level, where the appropriate change initiatives can be adequately sponsored.

In terms of timing, this early stage of Cloud maturity is second only to the timely completion of the Ark by early cloud evangelists, Noah and Sons. The combination of the global recession, the coming of the second stone age (ok, age of austerity) and the currently out of season green agenda are driving businesses to think in different and innovative ways to rapidly develop new products and services, increase collaboration and deliver rapid, low cost scalability to expanding and contracting business divisions – approaches enabled, supported and enhanced by Cloud deployment.

So what’s in store for the IT department? This is an interesting discussion that comes up in coffee breaks at all business technology events. My conclusion? Cast them out into the business, mute, unwashed and draped in sackcloth. The worthy will return in silken robes and carried aloft, a champion ready to lead the campaign to extract the very business essence from every last asset, grinning vendor and hand wringing consultant that dares utter the word ‘value.’

In the meantime, The Cloud Circle team continue to stimulate the community, facilitating the necessary parley to deliver bloodless and engaging Cloud forums. The final word – it’s evolving all around you at an alarming rate – find out more at September’s event.

By Barry Sage, an internationally experienced Director with a focus on People, Technology and Business Change