Summary

In a world of hypercomplexity, hypercompetition, and hyperconnectivity, and one in which the economy is increasingly virtual and services based, information is the key to data-driven decision making, simplification, contextualization, personalization, and differentiation. Information technology is the embodiment of a firm’s ability to exploit information, and the cloud can offer unique implementations of such technology that otherwise would be difficult, if not impossible.

However, the important lesson for CIOs is that IT, or the cloud, by itself, may not accomplish very much. It is important to determine how cloud adoption aligns with the strategy of the business and its Web of relationships and complements other changes to products, processes, people, and partners. In the next chapter, we focus on the strategic value of the cloud, not just IT.