5. Build a business case for using the cloud. It's critical for IT to determine where the business has the biggest bottlenecks that would benefit from the cloud. Once that's determined, start small and grow into a cloud deployment. Typically that means automating virtualization features to create a private cloud, or using a public cloud for development and testing.

6. Develop a people plan. A cloud deployment will in many cases , Bittman says. Cloud architects and orchestration specialists are needed to build and manage a private cloud and service managers are needed to ensure the cloud is delivering what's needed. Meanwhile, traditional IT roles or maintaining legacy infrastructure will not be needed as much as new roles are created.

7. Have a management plan. Bittman says the future of IT is a hybrid world where a variety of services will be used: Private cloud will be combined with public clouds to create a hybrid cloud, while traditional infrastructure will continue to be used on-site for certain applications. IT should be the broker of those services to the business unit, delivering the service based on the business use case and the service offerings.

8. Have the right technology in place. While business processes are critical, technology cannot be ignored. Fundamentals of the technology plan include access management -- meaning who has access to what services -- and a service governor that will manage the resources that are delivered through the cloud. There are a variety of vendors that will help enterprises and SMBs manage their cloud deployment. These range from end-to-end providers such as HP, IBM, BMC and CA Technologies, to vendors that focus on the virtualization layer and provide application services on top of that.

9. Mind the processes. Business needs evolve, and IT needs to be able to change with it. "As you build private clouds, look ahead to what's next," Bittman says. The future of cloud, he says, is a hybrid model that uses both a private and public cloud resources.