The questions that are often asked by IT departments, when discussing Cloud Computing, is: "What is the maturity of the concepts and of the solution?" "Should we go for it now?" "Wouldn't it be wiser to wait?"

The answer was perhaps not obvious for Cloud pioneers in 2005-2007. Today however, there is no longer any doubt. Many studies show that the cost and new application benefits are so high that the companies that fail to adopt it will risk constant or even growing costs whereas their competitors will see them decrease significantly.

The loss of business opportunities at a time when collaborative teamwork is becoming a necessity to guarantee employee productivity should also be taken into account. What is sure at present, is that smaller- to middle-sized organizations (5,000 to 10,000 users) will take advantage of the Cloud very quickly. Google's numerous references in this market demonstrate it quite clearly. The larger companies, whose ISs are much more complex, will first need to assess the impact of the Cloud on the governance and the organization (these points shall be dealt with in Chapter 3). But even for this market segment, the Google Apps have proved their effectiveness. Some references here are: Valéo, Malakoff-Médéric, Euromaster, particularly in industry and insurance.

Finally, the move towards the cloud announced recently by Microsoft, a historic player in the desktop business, testifies the maturity of the concepts. Cloud Computing has with no doubt entered the phase of mass deployment.