Bayer HealthCare Delivers a Dose of Reality for Cloud Payoff Mantras in Multinationals

In recent years, companies worldwide have enthusiastically embraced cloud computing technologies and services because of their potential business payoffs. Forrester Research estimates that the total global cloud computing market will grow from $61 billion in 2012 to $241 billion in 2020.3 Small and mid-sized companies have been at the forefront of cloud service adoption, and their accumulated experience has created a set of often-repeated cloud payoff mantras (or assertions). These mantras, regardless of whether they are true or false, have shaped IT managers’ understanding of the cloud’s financial benefits,4 technological implications5 and organizational impacts6 (see Table 1).