It pains me to hear that cloud computing is the “game changer”, the “hottest thing”. It’s what organizations need to focus on, and IT departments need to stand up.

To focus on cloud computing is to miss the boat entirely.  In fact, it is to miss the entire river and jump into the lake all the while being well-intentioned.  It is also pretty typical.  Because IT always has been about the what, not the why. 

All of the developments over the last few years have been about collaboration and availability.  How do I make my stuff available where I need it, when I need it, and to whom I need it.  Cloud computing simply provides the best vehicle for this approach.

So why do I say that to focus on cloud computing is to miss the boat?  Because it is possible to stand up a cloud solution that will fail miserably at this very concept.  And if you do not keep the reason why you’re standing up a cloud solution in mind, you will end up wondering how come nobody uses it.

Find out how your users want to use their data, whom do they want to work with, when and what type of data will they create, continuously focus on that.  Then on cloud computing.  Seems self explanatory, but oh so uncommon…