Getting Down to Business with Cloud Readiness Assessments

Businesses of all sizes, regions and vertical industries are moving applications and infrastructure to business clouds, according to the Strategy Analytics Enterprise Q1 2012 global survey. But are they ready for the next wave of transitions to the clouds that will have deeper and broader impacts on business? This report examines how the current crop of cloud readiness assessment tools from cloud product vendors and service providers can effectively engage businesses to discuss technological preparedness but fail to include sufficient consideration of workforce and other business factors that are equally relevant to evaluating readiness for choosing the most beneficial cloud types and deployment options. It wraps up with a view of clouds at the London 2012 Olympics.

1 Executive Summary
2 Getting Ready for Cloud Proliferation
2.1 Business Cloud Elements
2.2 Business Cloud Options
2.2.1 Cloud Types
2.2.2 Cloud Deployment Models
2.3 Mapping Business Requirements and Cloud Benefits
3 Workforce and Other Business Factors
3.1 Workforce Factors
3.1.1 Workforce Size
3.1.2 Workforce Variability
3.1.3 Workforce Location
3.2 Other Business Factors
3.2.1 External Collaboration and Access
4 Cloud Readiness Assessments Tools and Services
4.1 Cisco
4.2 CSC
4.3 EMC
4.4 Fujitsu
4.5 HP
4.6 IBM
4.7 Microsoft
4.8 Oracle
4.9 Rackspace
4.10 SAP
4.11 SunGard
4.12 VMware
4.13 Other Vendors
5 Conclusion
5.1 Key Learnings
5.2 Clouds at the London 2012 Olympics
6 Contact the author of this report: