Over the last few years, cloud computing and infrastructure—the delivery of business services to users over a network—has taken the IT world by storm. There's hardly an enterprise IT department that hasn't already adopted (or isn't currently considering) a move to cloud-based delivery models, and for good reason: the cloud offers a solution to IT management, resource, and cost challenges facing organizations today. But now that the hype has died down, it's become easier to evaluate how the promise …

The open source cloud computing project OpenStack has come a long way since NASA and Rackspace launched it in 2010. Backed by leading technology infrastructure providers including Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, and VMware, OpenStack underpins significant workloads at an increasingly diverse set of organizations, including BWM, CERN, Comcast, eBay, and Wal-Mart. For CIOs engaged in broader programs to win, serve, and retain customers -- and refocus business technology (BT) spend -- a planned and pragmatic …