In the future, we can expect IT organizations that embrace cloud computing to be much more willing to move forward with less fear that an application might experience huge adoption, since the resources necessary to respond to much larger loads are easily obtainable.

5. The Cloud Challenges IT the Same Way Open Source Did.

Of course, we should not overlook the fact that open-source adoption, while irresistible, was not painless. Many organizations needed to learn new skills to successfully use open source: interacting with communities rather than calling support; assessing the maturity of the product by means other than vendor employee count or revenue level, and, of course, using a funny license unlike the traditional software products. It all worked out in the end. However, organizations that resisted or delayed open source adoption suffered from excess IT spend, reduced agility and even lower employee satisfaction.

It's pretty obvious that cloud computing will follow the same track as open source. For all the emotional brouhaha, we can safely forecast that, despite BYOD protestations like the blog comment included earlier in this post, five years from now IT organizations will still be enormous. The question for CIOs, in Marxist terms, is this-if you lived through a tragedy over open-source adoption, will you now live through a farce as your organizations decides how to incorporate cloud computing?

Bernard Golden is CEO of consulting firm HyperStratus, which specializes in virtualization, cloud computing and related issues. He is also the author of "Virtualization for Dummies," the best-selling book on virtualization to date. Most recently Wired named him one of the Top 10 Cloud Influencers and Thought Leaders. Follow Bernard Golden on Twitter @bernardgolden.