The idea of managing an IT infrastructure without owning physical infrastructure is enticing and carries some cost and risk benefits for small enterprises, but there are still some areas for concern, including:
- Security of data and accountability.
- Service availability and reliability.
- Ability to move data between third-party platforms.
Info-Tech sees the cloud as significant within the larger context of the IT move to highly virtualized utility infrastructure. The future is in the cloud (both internal and external), so proceed, but with a clear vision of the potential risks.