"Business executives are starting to fully appreciate the potential transformative value that cloud can bring to the enterprise."

Rick Wright, Global Cloud Enablement Leader, KPMG

As cloud begins to become more mainstream within the business environment, we are seeing organizations move from the 'when and why' of the cloud adoption process to instead focus on the 'how'.

Organizations are starting to shift more and more core business functions onto cloud platforms and we are seeing a growing recognition that cloud adoption is significantly more complex than originally anticipated, particularly in terms of data management, system integration and the management of multiple cloud providers.

Findings from our recent cloud research, The Cloud Takes Shape, suggest that business process redesign must occur in tandem with cloud adoption if organizations hope to achieve the full potential of their cloud investments.

And while cloud brings great opportunity for businesses, both providers and users of cloud services need to be fully aware of the business case for moving to cloud, and the risks and challenges associated with it.