Drawing on an international survey of over 1,000 business and executives, this book provides a management perspective on cloud technology. It outlines the need to know information for strategic decisions on cloud technology including its capabilities, how it can be implemented securely and the way forward for the next ten years.

The long-awaited second collection by a central literary figure, Columbia University professor, and poetry editor of the Boston Review.

A close look at cloud computing's transformational role in business Covering cloud computing from what the business leader needs to know, this book describes how IT can nimbly ramp up revenue initiatives, positively impact business operations and costs, and how this allows business leaders to shed worry about technology so they can focus on their business. It also reveals the cloud's effect on corporate organization structures, the evolution of traditional IT in the global economy, potential benefits and risks of cloud models and most importantly, how the IT function is being rethought by companies today who are making room for the coming tidal wave that is cloud computing. Why IT and business thinking must change to capture the full potential of cloud computing Topics including emerging cloud solutions, data security, service reliability, the new role of IT and new business organization structures Other titles by Hugos include: Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World and Essentials of Supply Chain Management, 2nd Edition Practical and timely, this book reveals why it's worth every company's time and effort to exploit cloud computing's potential for their business's survival and success.

This invaluable guide addresses the Why, What, and How of enterprise cloud adoption, leveraging a clear framework and proven best practices from Microsoft's own experience. “Great book. What’s particularly impressive is the outline of steps Microsoft itself is taking in its move to the cloud. Do as I do is always more powerful than do as I say.”—Al Ries, Coauthor, War in the Boardroom “This book takes on enterprise cloud adoption to a level I’ve not seen before—made even more elegant with its structured framework and crisp approach.”—Anthony D. Christie, CMO, Level 3 Communications, Former CTO/CIO, Global Crossing “A practical and timely guide that covers the entire journey to the cloud from an enterprise perspective, including business, technology, and organizational impact.”—Bart Luijten, CIO Corporate Functions & Corporate Technology, Philips “The cloud powers business solutions for building tomorrow’s enterprise and this book offers a simple, well-structured, and high-level process map for cloud adoption.”—Kris Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Limited Cloud computing is full of tremendous opportunity, but is also riddled with hype and confusion. Business and technology leaders know the cloud is essential, but lack clarity and experience. To the Cloud cuts through the noise and addresses the Why, What, and How of enterprise cloud adoption. The book lays out a four-step framework leveraging the experience and best practices of Microsoft's own IT group. It provides end-to-end business and technology guidance, including how to analyze application portfolios to identify good cloud candidates, choose the right cloud models, consider architecture and security, and understand how shifting operations to the cloud affects budgeting and staffing. The book is applicable to all cloud platforms and providers, and debunks myths in its clear and concise style (e.g., real clouds are more than just web hosting, virtualization, or the Internet itself rebranded). It takes a balanced approach, addressing concerns and hybrid adoption scenarios alike. Leveraging the authors' proven expertise working for Microsoft's CIO on cloud migration and with cloud platform development teams, the book is supported by clear frameworks, graphics, tables, summaries, and checklists to provide a true practitioner’s guide to the cloud. In this book, you will learn how to Explore cloud computing to understand its promise and challenges Envision how cloud computing can transform your organization Enable your organization with the necessary resources and skills Execute the design, development, and operation of cloud workloads To the Cloud is an essential guide for IT professionals seeking to lower total cost of ownership, improve the return on IT investment of existing services, or help the business bring new products to market more quickly.

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Infrastructure as a Service -- Chapter 3: Platform as a Service -- Chapter 4: Application as a Service -- Chapter 5: Paradigms for Developing Cloud Applications -- Chapter 6: Addressing the Cloud Challenges -- Chapter 7: Security -- Chapter 8: Managing the Cloud Infrastructure -- Chapter 9: Related Technologies -- Chapter 10: Future trends and Research Directions.

How do you start? How should you build a plan for cloud migration for your entire portfolio? How will your organization be affected by these changes? This book, based on real-world cloud experiences by enterprise IT teams, seeks to provide the answers to these questions. Here, you’ll see what makes the cloud so compelling to enterprises; with which applications you should start your cloud journey; how your organization will change, and how skill sets will evolve; how to measure progress; how to think about security, compliance, and business buy-in; and how to exploit the ever-growing feature set that the cloud offers to gain strategic and competitive advantage.

In the past few years, going cloud native has been a big advantage for many companies. But it’s a tough technique to get right, especially for enterprises with critical legacy systems. This practical hands-on guide examines effective architecture, design, and cultural patterns to help you transform your organization into a cloud native enterprise—whether you’re moving from older architectures or creating new systems from scratch. By following Wealth Grid, a fictional company, you’ll understand the challenges, dilemmas, and considerations that accompany a move to the cloud. Technical managers and architects will learn best practices for taking on a successful company-wide transformation. Cloud migration consultants Pini Reznik, Jamie Dobson, and Michelle Gienow draw patterns from the growing community of expert practitioners and enterprises that have successfully built cloud native systems. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t when adopting cloud native—including how this transition affects not just your technology but also your organizational structure and processes. You’ll learn: What cloud native means and why enterprises are so interested in it Common barriers and pitfalls that have affected other companies (and how to avoid them) Context-specific patterns for a successful cloud native transformation How to implement a safe, evolutionary cloud native approach How companies addressed root causes and misunderstandings that hindered their progress Case studies from real-world companies that have succeeded with cloud native transformations

Cloud computing is the most significant technology development of our lifetimes. It has made countless new businesses possible and presents a massive opportunity for large enterprises to innovate like startups and retire decades of technical debt. But making the most of the cloud requires much more from enterprises than just a technology change. Stephen Orban led Dow Jones's journey toward digital agility as their CIO and now leads AWS's Enterprise Strategy function, where he helps leaders from the largest companies in the world transform their businesses. As he demonstrates in this book, enterprises must re-train their people, evolve their processes, and transform their cultures as they move to the cloud. By bringing together his experiences and those of a number of business leaders, Orban shines a light on what works, what doesn't, and how enterprises can transform themselves using the cloud.

All organizations are embarking on a journey to the cloud. Their users are online and taking advantage of productivity tools like SalesForce. Enterprises are in the midst of transitioning to Office 365. This book maps the journey of 16 leading enterprises around the world including Fannie Mae, Siemens, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon itself.

The conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong. Mark Mills lays out a radically different and optimistic vision for what’s really coming. The mainstream forecasts fall into three camps. One considers today as the “new normal,” where ordering a ride or food on a smartphone or trading in bitcoins is as good as it’s going to get. Another foresees a dystopian era of widespread, digitally driven job- and business-destruction. A third believes that the only technological revolution that matters will be found with renewable energy and electric cars. But according to Mills, a convergence of technologies will instead drive an economic boom over the coming decade, one that historians will characterize as the “Roaring 2020s.” It will come not from any single big invention, but from the confluence of radical advances in three primary technology domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines. Microprocessors are increasingly embedded in everything. Materials, from which everything is built, are emerging with novel, almost magical capabilities. And machines, which make and move all manner of stuff, are undergoing a complementary transformation. Accelerating and enabling all of this is the Cloud, history’s biggest infrastructure, which is itself based on the building blocks of next-generation microprocessors and artificial intelligence. We’ve seen this pattern before. The technological revolution that drove the great economic expansion of the twentieth century can be traced to a similar confluence, one that was first visible in the 1920s: a new information infrastructure (telephony), new machines (cars and power plants), and new materials (plastics and pharmaceuticals). Single inventions don’t drive great, long-cycle booms. It always takes convergent revolutions in technology’s three core spheres—information, materials, and machines. Over history, that’s only happened a few times. We have wrung much magic from the technologies that fueled the last long boom. But the great convergence now underway will ignite the 2020s. And this time, unlike any previous historical epoch, we have the Cloud amplifying everything. The next long boom starts now.