As talk of cloud computing swirls through the IT atmosphere, IT executives are sorting fact from fiction while trying to figure out what the new cloud computing model means for their organizations. Though much of what they hear is hype, pure and simple, cloud computing is a reality - an inevitable one for most companies. It is best to be prepared.

Cloud computing represents the ultimate in IT, the Holy Grail that enables the delivery of applications, software, platforms, and infrastructure as services from a shared pool of compute, network, and storage resources. No longer forced to map applications to specific pieces of hardware, this new, elastic IT is far more efficient and cost-effective. What’s more, IT can focus on the strategic, leaving the tactical tasks of provisioning and decommissioning resources to the users themselves, through a self-service portal.  

The potential benefits are too critical to ignore, especially for companies seeking new ways to compete in a tight global economy. With a cloud-based IT architecture comes the ability to reduce costs while accelerating product development, speeding service delivery and increasing competitiveness. Agility, dependability, flexibility, scalability, and trustworthiness are the hallmarks of a cloud network.  

Read this paper to learn more about cloud computing, how it works, and how to prepare your organization, network, and IT infrastructure for the change.