The World of Many Clouds? is evolving. With greater access to cloud-based services and applications and the wherewithal to adopt them, CIOs are facing increased IT purchases coming from outside their department. In order for IT leaders to maintain relevance and control they must act as cloud brokers to the lines of business (LOBs). And as private or public clouds are becoming more connected through hybrid clouds, IT must determine not only how to secure these new workloads and connections, but also determine which workload to deploy in which cloud. True hybrid clouds will allow for ultimate workload portability. In doing this, IT will achieve global reach and reliability, consolidation and control, and cost and scale across private, public, and hybrid clouds.

As with any technology, the future of cloud is constantly changing. In the world of many clouds, users experience cloud services anywhere, at any time, and on any device, and in which businesses consume IT as a service. How can IT leaders prepare for the next phase in cloud? Focus on workload allocation, agility and management. Results of the 2014 North Bridge Future of Cloud Computing Survey show 45 percent already, or plan to, run their company in the cloud and 60-85 percent of IT will move some or significant processing to the cloud in the next 1-2 years. As this transition occurs, IT leaders need to consider the following:

• What's your process for determining which workload gets which cloud model?
• How has that played out? % public, private and hybrid/community?
• How are you planning now for your next cloud initiative?
• Security, access, management: What are your priorities for cloud going forward?

Join me on Twitter thisFriday, July 11 at 10 a. m. PST/1 p.m. ESTfor an exciting and insightful hour about the#FutureOfCloud in the#InnovateThink  Tweet Chat.

Follow  @EFuiano and @CiscoCloud alongside @jeffcutler to learn more about how cloud has transformed the business landscape and why companies must continue to keep pace with the possibilities it creates.
Simply use the hashtags#InnovateThink and#FutureOfCloud on Twitter to join the conversation.

Learn more about Cloud:

• Read this blog by Dr. Gee Rittenhouse: Want to hear Cisco's POV on the top 5 questions about the Future of Cloud?
• View this SlideShare: Cloud Computing -Changing the Role of IT
• View this Infographic: IDC Cloud Adoption Trends
• Read about Cisco's Cloud Strategy