Yet, as we noted in the first edition of this book, when briefing CIOs and senior IT executives at Microsoft, we are often told that migrating IT workloads to the cloud ranks among their highest priorities. And quite frequently this is followed by questions such as “How do I start?” and “How should I build a plan for cloud migration for my entire portfolio?” and “How will my organization be affected by this change?”
Today, a new question has been added: “How can I use cloud computing to become a true partner to the business?”
This book, which is based on real-world experiences in the cloud by enterprise IT, seeks to provide answers to these questions. Here, you’ll see what makes the cloud so compelling to enterprises; which applications you should consider as you begin your cloud journey; how your organization will change, and how skill sets will evolve; how to measure progress; how to think about security, compliance, and business buy-in; and how to exploit the ever-growing feature set of the cloud to gain strategic and competitive advantage.
