Greg O'Connor

Everyone in the IT industry knows by now that cloud computing is exploding. Gartner said cloud computing was its number-one area of inquiry in 2010, and hype for the popular computing movement peaked last summer according to its 2010 Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing.

Regardless of what the media says, cloud is now a real option for delivery of IT services to business, and organizations of all sizes need to determine how they can generate real business benefit from using cloud. Industry discussion about its benefits still tend to be more focused on such IT advantages as IT capacity and utilization versus business impacts such as competitive differentiation, profit margin, etc. [Disclosure: The Open Group is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

The Open Group’s Cloud Work Group has created a series of White Papers to help clarify the business impacts of using cloud and, as a next step, The Open Group at our San Diego Conference today launched a public survey that will examine the measurable business drivers and ROI to be gained from the cloud. We encourage you to spend a few minutes completing the online survey.

We’re specifically looking for input from end-user organizations about their business requirements, outcomes and initial experience measuring ROI around their cloud projects.

We’re specifically looking for input from end-user organizations about their business requirements, outcomes and initial experience measuring ROI around their cloud projects. The survey both builds on the work already done by the Cloud Work Group, and the results of the survey will help guide its future development on the financial and business impact of cloud computing.

The survey will be open until Monday, March 7, after which we’ll publish the findings. Please help us spread the word by sharing the link -- http://svy.mk/ogcloud -- to our survey with others in your network who are either direct buyers of cloud services or have influence over their organization’s cloud-related investments.

This guest post comes from Dave Lounsbury, Chief Technical Officer at The Open Group.

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