When it comes to cloud deployments, it’s time for CIOs to start a process of “creative destruction,” according to analysts at IT market research company Gartner. This may be an alarming turn of phrase, but it’s one way of encouraging IT leaders to look at their infrastructure and applications, and “re-imagine” them to take account of a whole new world of cloud-based services.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing. CIOs ― almost without exception ― are planning for a strategic shift, but in the build-up to that they have been targeting tactical areas of IT for early migration to cloud. Across industry sectors, with the public sector no exception, commitments have been made to projects that are deemed “early wins,” as a means of proving the business case for cloud, but also as a way to expose some of the pitfalls.

These have manifested themselves in projects both large and small, across all hues of the cloud model, from private and community clouds to public or hybrid combinations. Examples include the shift of desktop apps and email to the cloud and the transfer of number-crunching workloads (such as data analysis) to cloud providers’ infrastructure, to the well-proven model of swapping in-house CRM for cloud-hosted customer applications.

It’s early days, of course. Gartner’s mid-2010 survey of 2,014 CIOs, in 38 industries across 50 countries, showed that a mere 3% had moved more than half of their infrastructure and applications to the cloud. But conversations with those same CIOs suggest that, by 2015, that number will have 
risen close to 50%.

As early-stage developments turn to deployments, IT leaders are becoming more vocal about their cloud success stories, as well as the issues they’ve encountered. Most of the results show cloud delivering on many of its promises: lower costs, as a result of aggregated demand and improved asset utilization; agility, through the opportunity to rapidly scale IT to reflect business needs; and innovation, derived from the wider expertise that results from the use of common infrastructure.

Of course these results also highlight challenges, including continuing issues around security, lack of interoperability, the immature standards landscape and a shortage of cloud skills.

What’s clear from talking to early adopters is that there are a lot of lessons to be shared. Do your due diligence. Implement in increments. Select areas where existing contracts don’t undermine the business case. Define service-level agreements clearly and monitor them closely. Be prepared to customize. Draw on outside expertise where needed.

Above all, learn from those who have been there before, and make “creative destruction” a rewarding experience, rather than a nail-biting one ― as the following four case studies demonstrate. (Follow the links below to download each one.)

US Army

By innovating in personnel recruitment with cloud services support, the US Army showed a 33% productivity gain.

CERN

How the European nuclear research center, CERN, embraced cloud to ease changes to IT service management in a dynamic environment where guests outnumber permanent staff by three to one.

US Department of Agriculture

The US government department unified its fragmented email systems ― used by 120,000 employees in 5,000 offices across 100 countries ― with a move to cloud. The cost: just $8 per user.

Eversheds

The international law firm has deployed cloud services to manage sensitive legal documents cost-effectively.