At a Keynote session at this year's Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Management Summit, a panel of Gartner analysts discussed the hype and realities of cloud computing and what organizations should do to take advantage of this new services delivery option.

Gartner analysts Stan Zaffos, Cameron Haight, Mark Fabbi, and Tom Bittman took part in a Gartner keynote panel entitled "Cloud Computing - Will It Impact Infrastructure and Operations?" on Tuesday. Each analyst gave his perspective of cloud computing from his area of expertise including Storage, IT Operations, Networking and Servers respectively. The main takeaway from the panel is that cloud computing is less about new technologies and more about the process of delivering value added IT services to the business. Without an understanding of the IT services that are being delivered, the processes involved, the service expectations of the business, and the associated costs, IT organizations will not be able to take full advantage of cloud computing.