With so much hype surrounding cloud, we love to see some real data. According to a recent online poll of business and IT leaders conducted by IDG Research Services, almost all enterprises have adopted or are planning to adopt a hybrid cloud model for at least a portion of their computer applications. Makes sense, right? It certainly seems like a good deal to get the best-of-both-worlds, but it brings us to a critical question: how do you deal with separate internal and public infrastructures?

Security is obviously a top concern when it comes to cloud adoption plans. After all, what CIO wouldn't worry about a threat in a public environment spilling over into his enterprise network? Plus, couldn't this bring about additional complexities?

During our cloud computing roundtable series we've covered a variety of topics from the technical benefits of cloud to the business risks. This range of topics brings us to an important point: the cloud discussion is very different for the business professional than it is for the IT professional.

In our final expert roundtable, we explore this dynamic. For the business person, cloud represents an opportunity to drive profitability, growth and product development. For the IT professional, the cloud represents a way to drive greater efficiencies, offload resources and ultimately provide another tool in the IT toolkit to support the business.

As we continue our exploration of cloud computing, we've hit a critical topic: connections. By that we mean the connections that will be required to make cloud computing a reality - whether that be connections between partners to provide a full end-to-end solution, industry standards connecting different vendors' products or the connections between the network and the apps. Understanding how these connections work is essential in reaching a successful cloud computing model. It's also a complex and little-discussed topic.

In this expert roundtable, Qwest cloud experts and Nemertes Research Senior Analyst Ted Ritter answer the following questions:

• What is the role of standards in the development of cloud services?
• Is the Internet the ideal platform for the cloud?

We all know that security is the No. 1 concern for enterprises considering cloud computing. Technology decision makers must balance risk management strategies with the high availability and performance of cloud-based resources.

In the second of four roundtables between Qwest cloud experts and Nemertes Senior Analyst Ted Ritter, we focus on public, private and hybrid clouds and the security considerations enterprises must keep in mind, including:

• What risk management strategies to consider
• How to evaluate which resources and processes should move to the cloud.

Continuing with our focus on cloud computing, we brought together our cloud experts with Nemertes Senior Analyst Ted Ritter for a tough question and answer session. This is the first in a series of roundtables focused on cloud computing. In this video, our execs answer the following questions:

- What is cloud computing?

- How does cloud affect the enterprise?.

We've been talking a lot about cloud computing here at Think Gig and we'd like to share an example of how we are moving to the cloud with our Salesforce.com implementation.

It begins with the classic story. The Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation replaces a homegrown funnel management system whose performance had been steadily degrading. Managers lacked visibility into the sales cycle and tools for coaching. Users wanted the ability to manage customers from a Smartphone without losing performance. The tool wasn't able to scale up quickly as the user base grew and changes to the application took longer than we'd like.

What are the benefits we found by moving to the cloud?

Shorter implementation cycle. The Salesforce automation (SFA) project got underway in May 2010. In six months, the team did analysis, design, c

In our last blog post, we talked about cloud computing's potential to foster the kind of innovation that we saw on the Internet in the 1990s. We suggested that enterprises ask, 'How can we use cloud technology to do something different?'

Now we want to dig into one of cloud computing's core components - Platform as a Service or PaaS - and look at how this flavor of cloud computing is enabling innovation.

First, let's define PaaS. It's a technology that combines hosted infrastructure with a development platform such as Java or APEX, purposely separating the development environment from specific operating systems or hardware.

This ena

In a challenging business environment, it's tempting to focus solely on how technology innovation can help companies reduce expenses and work more efficiently. I think it's also time for additional focus, to consider how new technology can foster growth, innovation and a new energy in the business landscape.

At Qwest, we believe that cloud computing offers as many opportunities to shake things up as the birth of the commercial Internet did 15 years ago.

In the mid-nineties, the emergence of the Internet launched a whole new level of innovation and was one of the elements that helped bring the United States out of a deep recession. Not only did scores of new companies spring up but existing companies discovered new lines of business and other ways to reinvent themselves and stay relevant. Ideas, information, resources and capital could move from anywhere to anywhere. Yes, the dot-com bubble eventually burst but compare you

Is your IT staff prepared to deal with the unthinkable? Imagine for a moment what would happen if your network, and all the systems and applications that rely on it, were suddenly unavailable. Have you considered the impact of this scenario - not only when a disaster strikes, but also when outages are caused by a spike in business activity or a problem with your provider's network?

Here at Qwest, we've developed a framework that enables multiple groups to work together to support business continuity and incident response. We have cross-functional teams tasked with this endeavor and have made disaster recovery and business continuity priorities for our business.

In addition to our own efforts, to help our customers stay ahead of the next unforeseen event, we are always looking for ways to leverage our

A question we see more businesses asking as they assess their workload coming out of the recession:

'What is the business of my business?'

While seemingly self-evident, this question gets down to important considerations. Is this process or function our core business or should we consider outsourcing to a partner? What is really the best use of our people and resources right now?

We've been hearing this more often lately, and it's a bit like the movie 'Groundhog Day' - in a good way.

Over the years, we've seen the outsource/in-house pendulum swing back and forth when it comes to IT. The last big swing, about 10 years ago, put many enterprises squarely in the camp of 'I'm going to roll my own.' They wanted to customize and control

During the downturn, you streamlined operations to make them truly lean. Now, with economic conditions brightening, you don't want to take your eye off the ball. But, during all this belt-tightening, did you let things go that exposed you to risk?

Network security often lands on the back burner when the going gets tough. We hear about security risks every day and understand what could happen...but dismiss the likelihood it will happen to us.

The truth is, the risk is just too high and now is a good time to evaluate your security strategy. But how do you know what's right for you?

Let's break down the options:

Do it yourself: Hire or train staff to secure your business through tools such as firewalls and web filters.

Pros: No worries about handing ov