Cloud computing is not going to solve legacy application challenges and costs. I recently talked with the CIO of a large media company who commissioned a study of his legacy apps to determine how many could operate in a cloud environment. The results: 10 percent. That means that 90 percent of those applications will go forward with the same inflexibility and high costs that they've had in the past. There is no cloud dividend available to make existing applications cheaper and free up money to invest in business-focused initiatives. This also means that the pressure to reduce costs in the legacy environment will continue unabated.

What all of this means is that IT is going to have to be rebuilt for cloud computing. Every group, every process, every skill will have to be re-evaluated in light of the need to reduce cost, implement automation and support revenue-focused business initiatives.

What will this look like? Here are some areas that CIOs will have to focus on: