Cloud and the future of business: from costs to innovation: part one: promise

With cloud computing becoming an increasingly important element of the IT function of most organisations, this five-part report presents a state-of-the art review of the key features of cloud computing and its likely near–term and longer–term development trends. It draws on research undertaken from late 2010 into 2011, including a survey of over 1035 business and IT executives and more than thirty-five interviews with key international players in the cloud computing ecosystem including cloud providers, system integrators and users of cloud services.