This is a very tough climate to be a CIO.  Under pressure to innovate a way out of the global recession and with an ever decreasing budget, CIOs are forced to deliver more with less, and quicker.

Cloud Computing offers the opportunity to do just that - at least if you are to believe the vast amount of coverage and opinion on Cloud in the marketplace.

So what exactly is Cloud Computing? Cost cutting, innovation, agility, flexibility

A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand; it is scalable, so the user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider.

On the surface the advantages are certainly compelling. Forward-thinking business leaders are using the Cloud within their enterprise data centres to take advantage of improved scalability, agility, automation, and resources. Furthermore, Cloud Computing frees up the IT department to focus on innovation for the business, reducing both capital and operational costs and automating the management of complex technologies.

Interest in Cloud Computing is at an all time high, but confusion, misunderstanding and misinformation abound and somewhere along the way the facts have become blurred. It’s no wonder then that the initial reaction for some has been to dismiss it as hype. And even those who could see initial promise from vendor claims have suffered from Cloud ‘information overload’ and still struggle to make sense of what’s real and myth.

It’s already happening….
But step away from the noise and the hype, and if you look closely, a steadily increasing number of CIOs are quietly implementing their first Cloud deployments. And these early adopters are seeing impressive results, slashing costs whilst at the same time increasing efficiency and agility. And as this technology continues to mature, and costs come down even further, more and more CIOs are starting to see it as an increasingly persuasive argument. In fact, they are wondering ‘Can we afford not to?’.

Evaluating the risks
The reality is that in this tough economic climate, getting sign off for new IT deployments is harder than ever. Investing in any enterprise technology solution can be a very demanding and potentially disruptive undertaking. At first glance, the risks seem high - what if it doesn’t deliver on all this promise?

Even the most forward thinking CIOs who can see the potential business benefits to their organisation, can feel apprehensive about how to take the first steps.

The Cloud Circle
The Cloud Circle is the UK’s first Independent Business and IT focused Cloud Computing Community. It was formed in 2009 to get beyond the hype, to get to the business issues around Cloud Computing, and to help our members:

1. understand what Cloud Computing really means and the potential advantages of Cloud Computing to their organisation
2. evaluate the key Cloud technologies and solution providers and explore what services they have to offer
3. derive the maximum benefit from their Cloud initiatives