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Consider these 5 essential questions to ask to assess how far along you are on the journey to becoming a strategic cloud business:

1. How service oriented are we? Clouds are collections of services, and if built or purchased without oversight or a plan across the enterprise, could end up being duplicated and far more expensive than the traditional on-premises systems they were meant to replace. Applications need to be broken down into callable services that can be delivered within and across businesses – a fundamental foundation known as service-oriented architecture. “Absence of a SOA strategy is likely to result in the uncontrolled proliferation of unstructured services across the enterprise,” Nadhan explains.
2. Are we capable of managing a variety of clouds? Let’s face it, no one is going to settle on one type of cloud to do everything across the enterprise. Typical enterprises will likely to be managing their own private or hybrid clouds, as well as procuring services from third-party services. And there will be multiple outside services from multiple providers. Issues that arise include vendor lock-in, retrieving data in a usable format, and finding the appropriate cloud platform for the expected workload and location, says Theile. “Depending on the business you’re in you may use partnerships and or competitive concerns as a decision factor in your multi-cloud strategy,” he says. In addition, the movement to these various cloud formations is part of the business transformation strategy.
3. Do we have an information strategy? Cloud can help companies take advantage of Big Data, but that data “must be secure and compliant with various regulations,” says Nadhan. “Such considerations are fundamental to the Information strategy which also addresses the timely availability of the right information at the right time presented in the right fashion.” Information security, of course, is a very important consideration for many companies, and often has been a show-stopper for cloud engagements. Theile also raises a number of key security issues that need to be addressed: “Do your systems administrators have access to corporate strategy around locations and data privacy requirements?” HIPAA or other regulatory concerns also need to be part of the equation in cloud engagements. Well-developed role-based security is also critical, he adds.
4. Do we have a cloud governance strategy? This is a matter of the control businesses have over their cloud services, says Nadhan. Who decides what services are employed? How are these services paid for? Who sets the standards for these services? “Cloud computing governance is vital to ensuring streamlined operation, interaction and ongoing evolution of the ecosystem of services and solutions pertinent to the business,” says Nadhan. An essential part of governance also addresses the lifecycle of services, from creation to retirement. “Unfortunately, most of us in the trenches don’t think about whether the images we create today should be reviewed six months from now,” Thiele points out. “Ensuring you have a solid life cycle approach will help you develop a more efficient use pattern and reduce the risk of inappropriate resource use.”
5. How is policy management across our clouds addressed? This is fundamental to the way cloud services interact with business processes. “Your architects and engineers might be terrific, but are you sure they are the best ones to determine the value of having a common and simplified set of tools for managing policy and governance across your images and across different clouds?” Theile asks. “Policy considerations can take into account everything from privacy to security, to performance and lifecycle depending on the platform you choose.”

Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/05/14/cloud-computing-a-game-changer-for-your-company-6-questions-to-ponder/?ss=strategies-solutions