The customers include Lionbridge, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA), and EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffered Services, and the post focuses on how they use a combination of Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V server virtualization and System Center management tools to optimize their IT infrastructure and experience the benefits cloud computing has to offer.

FORBES: Real Customers, Real Private Clouds

Today only 58% consider it important, while cloud computing and business process management gained in importance.

FORBES: Results of IBM's CIO Study -- Data is King

Stuart McGill, CTO, at Micro Focus, said that the Vanson Bourne study it commissioned, which includes responses from nearly 600 CIOs and IT directors across 10 countries, shows interesting trends with regards to beliefs about current application portfolio management, especially as it relates to mobility and Cloud Computing.

FORBES: Is Your Firm Running An IT Deficit

Putting the bulk of computing and storage in the data center has other perks for IT management: It creates a centralized location for software upgrades across an entire organization and puts a layer of network security between users and sensitive data--a lost thin client laptop, for instance, doesn't contain private information, and so doesn't pose a threat of causing a data breach.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The current paradigm of IT operations management is anything but simple and is holding customers back from achieving the promise of cloud computing.

FORBES: To Unlock The Power Of The Cloud, Rethink IT Management