Does Cloud Computing Require a Cultural Change in the Enterprise Ranks?

These five check list items in evaluating whether to move an app to the cloud are practical and spot on. Well, four of them are. I take issue with one even though the author of this Information Week piece is a CIO and I am not.

Author Vijay Sethi, CIO of Indian morotocyle maker Hero MotoCorp., writes:

“I think culture and mindset has to change, and this could be perhaps the most difficult barrier in adoption of Cloud computing. The mindset in the organization—not just IT managers—needs to be aligned to the fact there will be a transition from on-premises to off-premises computing.”

To my way of thinking, end users should not care a wit that their computing resources have moved from on-premises to the cloud. All they do is enjoy more accesibility to information assets, greater speed, quicker deployment of apps, mobility and other benefits associated with cloud computing.

The change in culture really should happen at the IT level. After all, they become service brokers rather than operators of their “own” tangible IT assets. So Sethi is partially right….and partially wrong in my estimation.

His first four points are spot on, but for those you’ll have to read his entire column. 

What do you think?