Accenture 6 questions_executives_should_ask_about_cloud_computing

Six Questions Every Executive ShouldAsk about Cloud Computing

Jeanne G. Harris and Allan E. Alter

January 2010

Research Note

No business executive today canignore cloud computing.1 Many globalorganizations—including Citigroup,Eli Lilly, and Starbucks—are alreadyusing it to analyze data, provideapplications to employees and runspecial projects.2 Media giants TimeWarner and Disney are using cloudcomputing to reengineer their processesfor distributing digital content.3 Andmore cloud services will soon be avail-able, as established IT and telecomproviders such as Microsoft, IBM,Accenture, Fujitsu, KDDI, China Mobileand SingTel join cloud pioneers likeGoogle, Amazon and Salesforce.com.4

But along with promise, cloud com-puting generates difficult questions.While it promises to deliver a wideand powerful range of capabilities,its potential uses are exceptionallybroad and difficult to foretell. Further,it will affect how computing is doneand managed, how information iscontrolled and the economics ofbusiness technology. The technology’snovelty and the hype found in somemedia stories make it even harder to

evaluate its potential, costs and risks.With so many issues to explore, decisionmakers can easily succumb to “analysisparalysis” or the temptation to abandontheir inquiry to the IT department.But cloud computing is too importantfor such missteps.

How can senior executives cometo a timely, focused and productiveevaluation of cloud computing?Accenture has identified six keyquestions business decision makersshould ask about this still-newphenomenon. By focusing on thesequestions, executives can narrowtheir inquiry without succumbing tosuperficiality, and start to identifyopportunities and risks for their ownorganization.

What is it, and how doesit work?

At its most basic level, cloud computingallows users, wherever they are, toobtain computing capabilities throughthe Internet from a remote networkof servers. (Back to IT 101 briefly:A server is a computer that providesapplications to other computers.)5

(See Figure 1 for a summary of differentkinds of clouds.)

Six Questions Every Executive Should Ask about Cloud Computing

2 | Accenture Institute for High Performance | Copyright © 2010 Accenture. All rights reserved.

For businesspeople, cloud computingcan seem almost magical: plentyof computing power; no expensiveIT infrastructure. Cloud computing letscompanies bypass the expense andbother of buying, installing, operating,maintaining and upgrading the networksand computers found in data centers.Instead of licensing software, userstap into a service when it’s neededfor as long as it’s needed. All that isrequired is a broadband Internetconnection, and a phone or personalcomputer with a browser. As withcable TV or a phone service, organiza-tions pay by the kind and amount ofservices used, plus any additionalfees. (Some cloud services like socialnetworks and Web mail are availableat no cost, but these are intended forindividuals instead of organizations.)

But the absence of a data center on-site doesn’t mean cloud computing isa matter of hocus-pocus. At the otherend of the Internet connection arecomputing clouds—supersized datacenters containing tens of thousandsof servers hosting web applications.Some cloud providers even housethem in cargo ship containers.6 Cloudsare designed so that processing powercan be added simply by attachingmore servers; software can be runon any available server with excess

Business leaders need to evaluate what cloudcomputing can do for their business, and howit can affect competition in their industry.Asking the right questions is the place to start.



Figure 1. A guide to cloud terminology

The term “cloud computing” originated as a twist on “computing cloud,” an easy-to-draw way to portray a group of computersor the Internet itself in a diagram. Today, cloud computing has come to encompass several kinds of services, and is oftenconfused with other technologies.

• Internet computing: seen by some as more fitting than “cloud” or “utility” computing• On-demand computing: popularized by IBM• Utility computing: popularized by author Nicholas Carr

• Software as a service: cloud-based applications• Infrastructure as a service: processing and storing data• Process as a service: business processes built upon cloud applications• Platform as a service: developing, testing, and running applications on clouds or for clouds

• Public cloud: a cloud made available to the public by a company• Private cloud: a cloud maintained for a single organization• Community cloud: a cloud shared by groups of businesses or organizations• Government cloud: a cloud maintained by a government agency for public use

• Virtualization: a way to run more applications or store more data on fewer computers• Grid computing: divides processing among computers; enables speed and scalability• Broadband Internet: enables vast amounts of data to quickly travel over the Internet• Web 2.0: applications and technologies that make the Web a vehicle for collaboration• Service-oriented architecture: designs systems to act like interconnected services

• Time sharing: how companies shared mainframes in the early days of computing• Application service providers: the first software services accessed via the Web

Synonyms

Cloud services

Cloud providers

Foundation technologies

Antecedents

capacity. The basic technologies canbe duplicated by any company. Thatmakes it possible for organizationsto build smaller “private clouds” fortheir own use, or for a consortium tobuild “industry” or “community” cloudsfor its members. Clouds the size ofthose run by Microsoft, Amazon andGoogle require additional technologiesso they can support many millionsof users around the world withoutbecoming sluggish.7

This description barely skates onthe surface of the underlying com-plexities. But for business leaders, itgets at the crucial point: with cloudcomputing (except for private clouds),the major burdens and expenses of ITpower become someone else’s problem.

What specific benefitscan clouds bring to myorganization?

Many of the potential benefits ofcloud computing have already beenidentified. (See Figure 2.) Bargainprices on cloud services are a big partof their allure. For example, Eli Lillypaid Amazon Web Services only$89 to analyze data on a drug underdevelopment. To do the job them-selves, its researchers would havehad to buy 25 servers.8 Add the savingsfrom eliminating the cost of servers,software licenses, maintenance fees,data center space, electricity and ITlabor, and the benefits of replacing alarge up-front capital expense witha low, pay-for-use operating expense,and the financial appeal of cloudcomputing is obvious.



Clouds offer extraordinarily flexibleresources too. They are scalablebecause of their technical design.Clouds can be summoned quicklywhen needed, grow by assigning moreservers to a job, then shrink or disap-pear when no longer needed. Thatmakes clouds well suited for sporadic,seasonal or temporary work, for fin-ishing tasks at lightning speed andprocessing vast amounts of data, andfor software development and testingprojects. Clouds can also supplementconventional systems when demandfor computing exceeds supply. Andsince they are an operational expense,cloud services can often bypass thecapital-expense approval process, andthus be quicker to procure than con-ventional systems. In Eli Lilly’s case,using clouds shaved three months offthe IT budget and approval process.

Figure 2. Initial opportunities for using clouds

Accenture has identified many different possible uses for cloud computing.

Ease

ofimplem

entation

Value to the enterprise High value

Hard

Easy

Source: Accenture Technology Labs

Desktop productivity• Web 2.0 applications• Workgroup applications• Office suites• Email and calendaring

Legacy• Specific existing infrastructure• Complex legacy systems

Business continuity (storage)• Extensive storage• Backup and recovery

Software development and testing• Software development and

testing environment• Performance testing• Non production projects• R&D activities• Reduced time to market

Geographic expansion• Replicate standard processes in

new locations and branches.

Sensitive applications• Mission critical applications• Regulation-protected data(HIPAA, SOX, PCI…)

Peak load demands• New business activities• Applications with peak-loads• Seasonal websites• Applications withscalability needs

New business• Provide IT support for

new ventures

Batch and data intensive applications• One-off applications that don’t rely

on real-time response• Data and high performance intensive

applications (financial risk modeling,simulation, data compression,graphics rendering…)

• New back-office applications

That represents $1 billion in opportunitycosts avoided, when translated to fastertime to market.

Clouds, paradoxically, can both decen-tralize technical innovation and imposecentralized control on IT resources.The barrier to entry for providing aninnovative IT service has never beenlower. Any programmer could createa software service using free or low-cost development tools, host it on apublic cloud, and quickly make itavailable to all. Clouds are also a fastand easy way for organizations toimpose a standard set of applicationsor processes. They only need pay fora cloud service and then requireemployees to go online and use it.

Clouds are still too new to fully under-stand their benefits. Business leadersshould begin by looking for specificbenefits for their own organization—ways to reduce costs, improve processesand more. They should also investigatewhen clouds do not make sense. Forexample, migrating a complex legacysystem would require a costly redesignto operate on a cloud, and projectsrequiring a guaranteed response timeshould be avoided, since guaranteesare risky when data has to run over theInternet.9 Executives are likely to findthe greatest benefit by envisioning newprocesses, applications, services andofferings that had been too difficult orexpensive for the organization.

Can I depend on clouds tosave my organization money?

CIOs say they are finding real savingsfrom cloud computing. Accentureestimates its own IT organization couldsave up to 50 percent of its hostingcosts annually by transferring most ofits applications to infrastructure clouds.10

Bechtel’s CIO benchmarked the com-pany’s internal data center and storageagainst those of Google, Amazon andSalesforce.com, concluding he couldgreatly reduce his per unit costs bycreating an internal cloud.11

But executives should not take mostpromises and projections of cloud sav-ings at face value. The articles aboutcompanies that have saved moneyrarely explain how these savings werecalculated. Several apparently rigorousanalyses of cloud savings have beenattacked as unrealistic.12 Furthermore,while most organizations that useclouds report that they are savingmoney as expected, not all have. Inone study of software-as-a-service(SaaS) users, only about half of therespondents reported a positive returnon investment from SaaS, while aquarter found the cost was greaterthan they had budgeted.13 And whileAccenture’s internal IT organizationhas moved several internal applica-tions to the cloud, it has not done soin several cases because the cost ofhosting the system internally, on anoptimized U.S.-based data center or inone of its Indian facilities, was lessthan that of an external cloud service.



So executives need to look closelyinto the costs of cloud computing forthemselves. They should seek rigorousROI case studies based on actualcloud usage, rather than estimates ofanticipated savings. Hardware, afterall, is a relatively small component ofdata center costs. They need to uncoverthe hidden management, transition,and usage costs that reveal themselvesonly when companies start to workwith the technology. They need tolook into the costs of using each kindof cloud service separately, since thepricing and cost involved in usingdifferent kinds of cloud services allvary. And they need to work with thefinance department to develop a con-sistent and acceptable approach tomeasuring the costs and return fromclouds. Only then can they reliablyestimate the savings.

How will clouds affectthe way my organizationcompetes?

Companies that have built massiveclouds are already transformingthe nature of competition. Google’sadvertising-supported search engineand tools and Amazon’s online retailoperations are all made possibleby the computing clouds created bythose companies. Cloud-based con-sumer applications like Facebook andiPhone applets are driving innovationin unpredictable ways.

Not every company will be able touse clouds to become the next Google,but other opportunities abound. Somecompanies are using clouds to createnew products and services. For example,Nasdaq is offering investors newcloud-based tools to analyze trades,capitalizing on its database of stocktransaction data. Best Buy is preparingfor the day DVDs are obsolete bylaunching a new online movie-stream-ing service that works through a cloudmanaged by a third party.14

Organizations can also use cloudsto quickly engage with customers.Starbucks used clouds to develop aweb site promoting volunteerism injust four weeks, timed to BarackObama’s inauguration. Designed toscale easily, it handled three millionhits on its first day alone.15 By usingthe speed, power and easy accessof cloud applications, start-ups andestablished companies alike canattempt to seize first mover advantagein a new market, enter an adjacentmarket or new region, and displaceslower-moving, less innovative rivals.Every strategist will need to under-stand when clouds can provide a com-petitive advantage, and when theircurrent IT infrastructure becomes acompetitive disadvantage.

Clouds can also help companiesimprove their efficiency and decisionmaking, and make them more compet-itive and profitable. BT Group is usingcloud-based analytics for revenueoptimization, by analyzing hundredsof millions of call-center records to

develop more lucrative pricing plans.16

Low-fare airlines around the world areusing reservation and other business-process services run on a private cloudoperated by Navitaire (an Accenturesubsidiary). Genentech and RentokilInitial, which offers a variety of build-ing-maintenance and courier services,are among the organizations that arereducing IT costs via cloud-basedoffice applications.17 In time, low-costproviders in other industries may beespecially keen to find ways to useclouds to further reduce the cost ofdoing business.

Clouds will not only enable strategy,but change competitive environments.Organizations will have to learn tothrive in a world of Internet giantswith extraordinarily large computingcapacities. The Google cloud processes20 petabtyes of data a day—the equiv-alent of 400,000 PCs with 50 gigabytehard drives.18 Few companies willchoose to build the massive cloudsthat run these services, but many mustcompete with or rely on organizationsthat do. Failure to do so, as manymedia, music and conventional retailersare finding, can devastate profits.

Executives also need to considercloud computing in a global context.Enterprises in developing nations mayuse cloud computing to compensatefor immature or incomplete IT infra-structure, much as they used mobiletelephony to offset a lack of landlines. Developing nations may alsopromote clouds as a low cost way toprovide IT services to small or start-upbusinesses. Tomorrow’s global com-petitor or partner could well be builton clouds.



Finally, executives should rememberthat clouds can promote cooperationas well as competition. Think of howan industry cloud, by providing acommon back-office platform, couldenable information to be sharedbetween hospitals, doctors, nursinghomes, insurers, regulators andpatients in the US health care system.

As with benefits, the ways cloudswill change competition are not yetfully understood. Strategists will needto perform a thorough assessmentto understand how clouds can helpthem compete or threaten existingbusinesses. CIOs will have to track theevolution of the technology to ensurethat strategic ambitions do not outruncloud computing’s capabilities.

What risks must myorganization manage?

Technologists and agencies havealready identified many data protec-tion and privacy risks connected withcloud computing.19 CIOs are concernedthat their data could be stolen byhackers, mixed with data from theircloud providers’ other customers, orreleased by mistake. Any of the abovewould expose organizations to publicembarrassment and lawsuits as wellas the time and expense of cleaningdata and undoing other damage.20

Less-well understood is how locallaws and regulations apply to cloudcomputing, especially among multi-national companies.

Organizations need to know howlaws that restrict the storage ofcustomer and employee data, or thatopen their data to government sub-poenas and searches, affect cloudcomputing. For example, Europeancompanies needs to understand howthey could violate EU regulations, orcome under the jurisdiction of theUSA Patriot Act, if they use Americancloud service providers or Europeanproviders that move data to a serverin the United States.21

Problems with reliability, performanceand other technical issues presentIT-related risks. Clouds do fail: evenprominent cloud service providers havesuffered service outages or slowdowns.22

Unless cloud providers can match theuptime performance of large organiza-tions with mature IT infrastructures,

and back up their services with strongerguaranteed service level agreements,it is unlikely that enterprises will usethem to replace their financial systemsor to process orders during the holidayshopping season.

IT managers will uncover otherchallenges. For example, how manysources of data can a cloud-basedapplication draw upon from before itbecomes sluggish? Will it be morechallenging to integrate data whenit must be shared between cloudservices or with their complex conven-tional systems? How do they makesure they can easily reclaim the dataheld for them by one cloud provider,so they can easily switch to another?23

IT organizations must find answersto questions like these if they are todeploy clouds more broadly.



Executives should discover whichrisks apply to their organizations andhow to ameliorate them. They shouldfind out which cloud service providersthey can trust, and whether theirown organizations’ data managementpractices expose them to risk.24 Andthey should not forget that cloudscan provide security benefits as wellas risks. (For more on security risks—and benefits—see Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Cloud security risks and benefits

Executives have focused on the possible risks of cloud computing, but the technology also offers potential security benefits.

Top security risks

• Loss of governance: loss of control on issues affectingsecurity to cloud provider

• Lock-in: lack of tools, procedures, data formats orinterfaces to guarantee portability

• Isolation failure: failure of mechanisms that separatedata of organizations sharing a cloud

• Compliance risks: providers unable to prove compliance,or permit auditing

• Management interface compromise: exploitation ofbrowser and remote access vulnerabilities to gain accessto protected data

• Data protection: data handled in an insecure or unlawfulway by provider

• Insecure or incomplete data deletion: data not fullywiped out when requested

• Malicious insider: damage by renegade cloud systemadministrators and security providers

Top security benefits

• Scale: advanced security measures are more affordablewhen done on a large scale, allowing cloud providersto invest more in security

• Market differentiation: security concerns motivateproviders to improve security practices

• Standardized interfaces: large cloud providers can offera standardized, open interface to managed securityservices providers

• Resilience: ability of clouds to reallocate resources forauthentication, encryption, etc.

• Audit and evidence-gathering: clouds can readilyanalyze possible breaches and generate logs

• Updates: timely patches, updates and security settingscan be rapidly rolled out or adjusted

• Resource concentration: cheaper and easier to controlaccess to one large facility than many smaller ones

Source: “Cloud Computing: Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security,” the European Network and Information Security Agency,

November 2009

What are my next steps?

Cloud computing is too important atechnology to leave entirely to tech-nologists. While the work of migratingfrom conventional to cloud computingis likely to fall on the shoulders ofthe CIO, other senior executives haveimportant roles to play. To make surean organization maximizes benefitsand minimizes risks, executives mustdo the following:

Ask hard questions and demanddata-based analyses regardingcost savings. Don’t assume automaticand substantive cost savings. Doan ROI analysis. Consider conversionand ongoing costs as well as savings.Don’t be intimidated by the jargon.Experiment or pilot on low-hangingfruit such as workgroup applications,or on a non-mission critical, non-integrated application. Then be readyto scale once you’ve proven the benefitsare worth it.

Establish a clear governance structurefor cloud computing. Many organiza-tions have rules and structures inplace that govern how IT decisions areshared between line and IT executives.Use them (and if they don’t exist, cre-ate them) to decide who inside andoutside the IT organization should beengaged in decisions on cloud com-puting, and what decision-makingrights and responsibilities they have.

Keep cloud efforts on track. Makesure cloud computing receives thefocused thinking, planning and follow-up it requires. Use the answers tothese six questions to identify andaddress immediate business needs thatlend themselves to cloud computingand longer-term opportunities forclouds, to develop a plan for usingpublic and private clouds, and to gainthe capabilities the plan requires.Make sure the organization senses andresponds appropriately to the impactclouds are having on their industryand competitive environment.

Set the standards for success.Provide the necessary oversight to theIT organization. Make sure goals anddeliverables are well understood, andprojects are well aligned with businessneeds. Clarify how the value fromcloud computing is to be determined:which quantitative and qualitativebenefits are sought? And consider whatelse constitutes success besides valueachieved and projects completed: skillsdeveloped, partnerships established,and risks addressed.

Provide the necessary support.Besides financial resources and tech-nical talent, support other activitiesthat will underpin the success of cloudinitiatives. For example, organizationsmay benefit from a community ofpractice or a cloud program officeto develop the skills and share theexperiences of people engaged incloud projects.



Buy cautiously, appraise frequently.It’s too early to predict who the majorcloud providers will be in a few years,what capabilities they will deliver,when they will deliver them, andhow well. So when selecting cloudproviders, carefully consider whetherthey have the potential to be a desirablepartner in the future. Even after theyare chosen, evaluate your partnerson their financial stability, as well astheir ability to improve functionalityand service levels, to integrate dataacross different technology platformsand cloud services, and to deliver ontheir promises.

It will take time for organizationsto transition to cloud computing.Executives are still grappling withits risks and possibilities, and the costof writing off current IT investments.Still, a transition to a hybrid of cloudand conventional computing is underway. The capabilities and potentialsavings from clouds are too great toignore. In addition, software developersand venture capitalists will be drawnto this new market. The low develop-ment cost, short development cycle,and quick return on cloud services areirresistible. This means future ITadvances and innovations are muchmore likely to be based on cloudsthan conventional computing. Thecritical issue isn’t whether cloud com-puting will become a fundamentaltechnology in the next decade. It ishow companies will make money fromthe capabilities it offers.

Notes

1 “What the Enterprise Needs to Know About

Cloud Computing,” Accenture Technology

Labs, October 2009; “Gartner Identifies the

Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010,”

Gartner, Inc. press release, October 20, 2009;

“2009年云计算中国论坛专题报道”

(“Cloud Computing in 2009 Forum dossier”),

Chinese Institute of Electronics Cloud Computing

Experts Association, http://server.it168.com;

“The Cloud Wars: $100+ billion at stake,”

Merrill Lynch, May 7, 2008; Avenade 2009

Global Survey of Cloud Computing,

http://www.avanade.com; Laurianne McLaughlin,

“Cloud Computing Survey: IT Leaders See

Big Promise, Have Big Security Questions,”

CIO Magazine, October 21, 2008.

2 Eric Auchard, “Salesforce.com Signs Citigroup

Deal,” Reuters.com, November 15, 2007;

“Salesforce.com Powers Starbucks Campaign

to Mobilize Americans in National Service,”

Salesforce.com press release, January 21, 2009,

http://www.salesforce.com; Ron Condon,

“The Opportunities and Risks of Cloud

Computing Services,” SearchSecurity.co.uk,

February 23, 2009.

3 Ethan Smith, “Disney Touts a Way to Ditch the

DVD,” Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2009.

4 Ben Worthen and Justin Scheck, “Tech Giants

Ramp Up Their Online Offerings,” Wall Street

Journal, June 22, 2009; “Cloud Services/SaaS:

What Telcos Are Doing,” IDC Technology

Assessment, October 2009; “China Mobile

Enters Sphere of Cloud Computing,” Interfax,

November 17, 2009; Bernard Golden, “The

State of Cloud Computing in Japan,” CIO.com,

November 5, 2009; “SingTel to Help Establish

Singapore as a Regional Cloud Computing

Hub,” SingTel press release, July 14, 2009;

Chris Preimesberger, “Fujitsu Launches Cloud

Services in North America,” eWeek.com,

December 8, 2009.

5 Accenture formally defines cloud computing

as “the dynamic provisioning of IT capabilities

from third parties over a network.” See “What

the Enterprise Needs to Know about Cloud

Computing,” Accenture Technology Labs.

6 David Katz, “Tech Titans Building Boom,”

IEEE Spectrum, February 2009; Maija Palmer,

“Where the Internet Lives,” Financial Times,

November 17, 2009.

7 Luiz André Barroso and Urs Hölzle, The

Datacenter as a Computer: An Introduction

to the Design of Warehouse-Scale Machines

(Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2009).

8 Condon, ibid.

9 Accenture Technolocy Labs, ibid.

10 “Pressure Performance: 2009 IT Report,”

Accenture CIO Organization, November 2009.

11 “CTO Roundtable: Cloud Computing,”

Communications of the ACM, Volume 52,

Number 8 (2009), http://queue.acm.org;

Gray Hall, “Bechtel Harnesses the Cloud:

Case Study of an Enterprise Cloud,”

Cloudstoragestrategy.com.

12 “Cloud Coockoo Land Computing,” dotfuture-

manifesto.blogspot.com; Andy Greenberg,

“Deflating the Cloud,” Forbes.com, April 15, 2009

13 “SaaS Returns Bolster Cloud Computing’s

Promise,” Computer Economics, March 2009.

14 Penny Crosman, “Cloud Computing Begins

to Gain Traction on Wall Street,” Wall Street

& Technology, January 6, 2009; Galen Gruman,

“Early Experiments in Cloud Computing,”

InfoWorld.com, April 7, 2008; Steve Lohr,

“Best Buy Prepares for the Post-DVD Era,”

bits.blogs.nytimes.com, November 3, 2009.

15 “Salesforce.com Powers Starbucks Campaign

to Mobilize Americans in National Service,”

Salesforce.com press release, January 21, 2009;

Charles Babcock, “Salesforce Enticing

Customers With Force.com Free Edition,”

InformationWeek.com, June 16, 2009.

16 Jarina D’Auria and Kim Nash, “Early Cloud

Adopters Ride Out Hype Cycle,” CIO.com,

May 27, 2009.

17 “Rentokil to Use Google’s Apps Cloud,

Biggest Yet,” CIOzone.com, 13 October 2009;

Genentech on Google Apps, YouTube.com;

Erika Murphy, “City of Angels to Give Cloud

Computing a Go,” TechNewsWorld.com,

October 28, 2009.



18 Jeffrey Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat,

“MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on

Large Clusters,” Communications of the ACM,

January 2008; Peter Vajgel, “Needle in a Haystack:

Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos,”

Facebook Engineering’s notes, April 30, 2009;

“Zoinks! 20 hours of Video Uploaded Every

Minute!” Broadcasting Ourselves: The Official

YouTube Blog, May 20, 2009; “Y,000,000,000u

Tube,” October 9, 2009, http://youtube-

global.blogspot.com.

19 “Having Confidence in Cloud Computing:

Addressing Enterprise Security Concerns,”

Accenture Technology Labs, 2009; “Cloud

Computing: Benefits, Risks and Recommendations

for Information Security,” European Network

and Information Security Agency, November

2009; “Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View

of Cloud Computing,” UC Berkeley Reliable

Adaptive Distributed Systems Laboratory,

February 10, 2009; Robert Gellman, Privacy

in the Clouds: Risks to Privacy and Confidentiality

from Cloud Computing (World Privacy

Forum, 2009).

20 CIO Cloud Computing Survey,” CIO Magazine,

June 2009; “Clouds Beyond the Hype:

Positioning for the New Era of Enterprise IT,”

presentation by Frank Gens, International

Data Corp. to the Society for Information

Management Boston chapter, June 11, 2009;

McLaughlin, ibid., Avenade study, ibid.

21 Mell and Grance, “Effectively and Securely

Using the Cloud Computing Paradigm,”

presentation by the (U.S.) National Institute

of Standards and Technology’s Information

Technology Laboratory, May 15, 2009.

22 Gmail blog, “We Feel Your Pain, and We’re Sorry,”

August 11, 2008 http://gmailblog.blogspot.com;

“From Sidemail to Gmail: A Short History of

Cloud Computing Outages,” Network World,

October 12, 2009.

23 Tony Konter, “Pulte CIO Has Cloud Horror

Story,” CIOInsight.com, Sept. 30, 2009.

24 Accenture Technology Labs,

“Having Confidence,” ibid.

About the authors

Jeanne G. Harris ([email protected]) is a senior executiveresearch fellow with the AccentureInstitute for High Performance, and isbased in Chicago. She is the co-author,with Thomas H. Davenport, ofCompeting on Analytics: The NewScience of Winning (Harvard BusinessPress, 2007) and, with Davenportand Robert Morison, of Analytics atWork: Smarter Decisions, BetterResults (Harvard Business Press, 2010).

Allan E. Alter ([email protected]) is a research fellowwith the Accenture Institute for HighPerformance, and is based in Boston.He was formerly an editor with suchpublications as CIO Magazine andCIO Insight.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company. Combiningunparalleled experience, comprehensivecapabilities across all industries andbusiness functions, and extensiveresearch on the world’s most successfulcompanies, Accenture collaborateswith clients to help them becomehigh-performance businesses andgovernments. With more than 177,000people serving clients in over 120countries, the company generated netrevenues of US$21.58 billion for thefiscal year ended August 31, 2009. Itshome page is www.accenture.com.

About the Accenture Institutefor High Performance

The Accenture Institute for HighPerformance creates strategic insightsinto key management issues andmacroeconomic and political trendsthrough original research and analysis.Its management researchers combineworld-class reputations with Accenture’sextensive consulting, technology andoutsourcing experience to conductinnovative research and analysis intohow organizations become and remainhigh-performance businesses.



Copyright © 2010 AccentureAll rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, andHigh Performance Deliveredare trademarks of Accenture.

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