By Alan Joch

For CIOs looking to maximize their impact on the business, cloud computing offers compelling benefits. Cloud computing promises organizations on-demand access to a pool of computing resources that can automatically increase or decrease as needs change. This means IT — or even the business users — can start new projects with minimal effort or interaction and only pay for the amount of IT resources they end up using.

"Clouds offer a lot of things, including cost savings, greater flexibility and reduced risk," says Mark Zalubas, CTO of systems integrator Merlin International. "But IT managers need to be clear about what they are trying to accomplish when moving to clouds."

Yet, depending on whose statistics you use, only a quarter to a half of all IT shops have actual cloud computing projects under way. What's more, most of these projects involve only selected systems. So how can enterprises get started with cloud computing? Cloud veterans suggest CIOs start with these six steps.

Step 1: Learn the Lingo
Clouds come in a variety of permutations, each serving a different need. Success with the technology hinges on having everyone in the organization understand these differences. "Until all the technical and business leaders are aligned about what they mean by cloud computing, there are going to be misunderstandings and missteps," says Jack Story, CTO of Infocrossing, an IT infrastructure management provider.

The most basic division is between private and public clouds. Private clouds run either within an enterprise's firewall or as dedicated resources managed for the customer's exclusive use by a third-party service provider. Public clouds let multiple customers divvy up resources from a pool of data centers to meet their business needs. "Once you know exactly what IT resources you have," advises Zalubas of Merlin, "you are in a better position to evaluate which type of clouds will benefit you the most."

Part 2 – Higher Altitudes for Cloud Computing

Part 3 – Securing the Cloud