Westport, CT (February 25, 2010) - [@PR2WEB] – Traditional IT and business leadership strategies and tactics will be of limited effectiveness in a Cloud-based environment where anyone can do practically anything they want or need to. Thus, how user organizations plan for and manage Cloud IT will have to improve upon established practices and policies. IT, Finance, and line-of-business executives must learn and use new, combined management tactics when it comes to Cloud IT.

This core finding is the foundation of the latest research study from Saugatuck Technology Inc., titled “Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way: A Working Model for Cloud IT through 2014.” Released today via Saugatuck’s website, the study uses interviews with experienced user organization executives, analysis of global survey data, and insights from leading Cloud providers, to build a realistic, working model of Cloud evolution, adoption, and most importantly, cost-effective management.

“Cloud adoption right now is a point-solution phenomenon, and we know from every previous instance of IT that point solutions cost more in the long run,” according to Saugatuck Managing Director Bruce Guptill,  the study’s lead author. “If IT, Finance, and business leaders can see and  understand how Cloud adoption is growing and changing, they can manage it, and take advantage of tremendous cost efficiencies. In this report, we have developed a  simple, evolutionary model of Cloud IT adoption and its impact over time. And we deliver guidance to user executives as well as to providers of Cloud IT and traditional IT as to how best to manage the Cloud’s present and future.”

This argument is borne out by the study’s key findings, which include the following:

• Cloud IT is growing through four parallel, complementary, and over-lapping stages of use and evolution:
  • Point and Marginal Stage,
  • Developmental Stage,
  • Internal Growth Stage, and
  • Hybrid/Interwoven Stage.
• Most user organizations either are going through, or within the next few years will go through, at least three of the four stages – each of which advances, and complicates, the roles and use of Cloud IT.
• By YE 2011, at least 75 percent of user organizations will be using one or more Cloud IT instances (e.g., SaaS, Cloud infrastructure, business services), to enable and support daily business operations
• To minimize costs and optimize Cloud effectiveness and efficiencies, leadership is needed from IT, Finance, and business organizations – and from Cloud IT providers as well.
• By YE 2014, 45 percent or more of NEW enterprise IT workloads will be Cloud-based.

The study is available immediately to clients of Saugatuck’s premium Continuous Research Service (CRS), or can be purchased from Saugatuck’s web site.

About Saugatuck Technology

Saugatuck Technology Inc. provides subscription research and management consulting services focused on the key market trends and disruptive technologies driving change in enterprise IT, including SaaS, Cloud Infrastructure, Open Source and Enterprise Social Computing. Founded in 1999, Saugatuck is headquartered in Westport, CT, with offices in Falmouth, MA, Santa Clara, CA and in Frankfurt, Germany.  For more information, please visit www.saugatech.com, or call +1.203.454.3900.

To request a briefing with our analysts, contact Chris MacGregor at chris.macgregor@saugatech.com.

For more information about Saugatuck’s subscription research services (CRS), go to http://www.saugatech.com/crs.htm.

To sign up for Saugatuck’s complimentary Research Alerts, go to http://research.saugatech.com/cgi-bin/order/signup3.pl.