Unisys can't offer one product that can connect all of those into a single portal -- no one could, Treadway said. However, it can help customers reduce the number of management tools they use and integrate them into a single framework that makes management more straightforward, he said.

Customers that go through the analysis process with Unisys will participate in a series of workshops and will receive an operations document that proposes how the enterprise should move applications into the cloud. The cost of the process will vary.

It's not a quick process, Treadway warned. "This is so 180 degrees from the cloud-in-a-box approach," he said, referring to offers from some cloud vendors to help customers move to the cloud in 30 days or so. "Typically, that won't be sustainable."

The IDG News Service