This is a summary of the full EMA report available at http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/research/asset.php?id=1924.

The overarching goal of this EMA research report is to provide useful points of comparisons for IT executives, cross-domain service management organizations and other strategic groups seeking to optimize their Cloud investments in a broader service management context. The vision underlying this requires accepting the fact that Cloud computing technologies are in the end, just that -- technologies. Rather than being ends in themselves, they are a means for supporting the core requirements that have always gained the attention of more mature service management teams:  the more effective delivery and alignment of IT services in support of business or organizational outcomes.  

However, Coud is also stimulating cultural and process changes as IT becomes less of a "territory" to be defended in the interest of vested skill groups, and more a fluid and dynamic broker of internally and externally developed business services.