Cloud computing service quiz for enterprise CIOs

Cloud computing is more than a buzzword -- it's a way for enterprise companies to take advantage of on-demand services, often in a more affordable and less infrastructure-heavy manner than previously possible.

Does your organization have its head in the clouds? Read the stories linked to below, and take this quiz to see if you are ready to ramp up your cloud computing service offerings.

1. North Carolina University in Raleigh has been into cloud computing since 2004, and currently has about 2,000 blade servers open to 33,000 students and faculty. The systems have more than 800 images, but only ______ images are maintained centrally by the IT department.



2. Multiple passwords create a management nightmare: People write them on Post-it notes where other people can see them, give them to a co-worker or a friend when they're out of the office, or lose them -- requiring IT to reset them constantly. What term is used to describe the condensing of passwords needed to log onto an enterprise network or cloud?



3. Some business users are growing tired of waiting for their IT department to provision a new application or service, and are tapping cloud providers, bypassing IT along the way. Why are IT departments apprehensive about users provisioning their own cloud applications?



4. The Trusted Cloud Initiative (TCI) cloud standards group, which aims to help cloud providers develop industry-recommended, secure and interoperable solutions, is developing cloud computing best practices based on guidelines set by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). These best practices are heavily geared toward _______.



5. True or false: According to Julio Gomez, co-founder of Innovation Councils LLC, a Concord, Mass., organization that brings together CIOs in various industries to discuss emerging technologies, CIOs should identify the lowest-risk, lowest-value areas for their first forays into enterprise cloud computing.



6. PropertyRoom.com Inc. -- a Mission Viejo, Calif.-based Web business that auctions off, stores and ships seized and abandoned properties for 1,800 police departments and municipalities -- used the cloud to eliminate its Oracle database license. How long will it take for the monthly fee to catch up with the up-front and ongoing costs the company would have paid to house and maintain the auction engine in-house?




7. How is Niel Nickolaisen, CIO and vice president of strategic planning at Headwaters Inc. in South Jordan, Utah, experimenting with the cloud in his organization?



8. According to research by Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., approximately 8% of enterprise security budgets currently are dedicated to identity and access management, or IAM, and the market is expected to grow to $11.9 billion by the end of 2013. By 2014, IAM as a Service will account for ________ of all IAM sales revenue.




This was first published in June 2010

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