The Cloud is an awesome thing, but there are some pitfalls you need to avoid when planning such strategy:
1. Not looking at the long term - most companies only look at the short term when developing a cloud strategy, trying to figure out how to achieve only their short term objectives. Instead, try to figure out how to use the Cloud in long terms and try to avoid future capability limitations. You don't want to render yourself helpless when you face errors which you could have easily bypass earlier when creating the strategy;
2. Limiting yourself inside the cloud - we have written over and over about the nature of the Cloud and its components. Its functionalities include software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service etc. Do not limit yourself to only using one of these functions, see if you can implement more in your strategy. Acquiring a single service is a reason to miss on a lot of useful functionalities which can make your strategy more effective as a whole;
3. It's an IT department thing only - implementing the Cloud may be a work for the IT team, but that doesn't mean it should be done in a vacuum. After all, the Cloud is a multitude of services and the target of them are the end users - both customers and employees. See if your IT team can implement it cooperating with end users, so they can create a service that can satisfy the needs of everybody;
4. Security is not my problem anymore - you've probably heard that outsourcing your applications and systems means you are no longer responsible for their security as this becomes a responsibility of the vendor. This is a general misconception, as you are still responsible for the customers/shareholders information, and if something goes wrong, it won't be the vendor who's fault it will be...
5. Jumping in the deep without exploring first - most companies jump directly to the point where they try to figure out which vendor to pick up without taking time to check out what their business actually needs. Leaping to soon will only lead to an ineffective using of the Cloud.
More articles:
1. Advantages of Cloud Computing
2. Why you should use Cloud Service Desk for your business
3. Components of Cloud Computing