As the business world increases its use of cloud computing, organizations that are considering making the transition need to be alert and aware of the prospective change and how the adoption of hosted services will impact current operations.

There is no doubt that cloud computing is gaining momentum in the business world, as companies continue to take steps in pursuit of migrating mission-critical assets to a safe off-site environment.

Although cloud computing services offer companies a number of benefits, decision-makers must ensure they have the proper visibility into the network to minimize vulnerabilities and other issues that could lead to poor performance.

Because natural and man-made disasters are often unavoidable, decision-makers must be sure their companies have the appropriate recovery plans in place.

Keeping the cloud safe can be much more challenging than protecting traditional IT environments.

As companies increase their use of digital technologies, decision-makers are burdened with the responsibility of keeping larger volumes of highly sensitive information safe.

Companies need to be prepared for natural and man-made disasters that can strike unexpectedly and leave an organization without a data center, hindering operations and jeopardizing security.

Although cloud infrastructure services provide organizations with a number of new opportunities that are not necessarily available with legacy solutions, several capabilities are more advantageous than others.

The consumerization of IT has introduced a number of monumental changes in the private sector, most notably driving the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend in the enterprise, which allows individuals to use personal smartphones and tablets for business tasks.

The rapid maturity of the cloud is drawing decision-makers to hosted environments at an extremely fast pace, especially as the private sector becomes increasingly competitive due to the constant emergence of new firms and companies expanding their offerings.