Finally, application deployment and management on a PaaS provider typically comes with handy features such as auto provisioning and auto scaling.

FORBES: ROI of the Cloud, Part 1: PaaS

While the survey finds cost control as the major impetus to adopt cloud applications (17 percent say so), speed of application deployment (14 percent) and mobile access (13 percent) also rate as reasons to go to cloud.

FORBES: Seven out of 10 Cloud Applications Not Sanctioned by IT Departments: Is This a Bad Thing?

This design includes defining business objectives as well as application definition, deployment and adoption.

FORBES: The Gamification of Business