What is Happening? — In last week’s Research Alert, we noted the following: The pace of Cloud-driven business innovation is outstripping even the accelerating pace of IT innovation – and therefore is outpacing the abilities of established IT and business management organizations and structures (1138RA, Cloud Business Summit 2012 – The BfE Comes to NYC, 01Nov2012).

Our core warning to enterprises (and to the IT providers serving them): Increasing complexities and costs of doing business and managing IT, in a time when Cloud promises to help organizations and leaders deliver exactly the opposite.

What is Happening? — Google helped wake up and shake up Cloud, mobility, consumer, and enterprise IT markets with its announcement early Monday August 14 that it plans to acquire Motorola Mobility. Motorola Mobility in turn announced Monday that it had accepted Google’s offer of $40 per share, about a 60 percent premium over its traded share price on Friday August 12. The total deal value is placed at $12.5B, assuming regulatory and shareholder approval as structured. No timetable for deal approval and consummation has been released by either company, but it is widely expected to complete by the end of 2011.

Broadcast and web-based news, business and trade publications, blogospheres, the Twitterverse, and all other associated media have already pumped out millions of words and bytes of analysis and ideas about the deal. Opinion and analysis seem almost evenly split on whether or not it’s a good deal for Google, its competitors, and users.

What is Happening? — This week Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced two service outages in facilities on different continents. Not surprisingly, there has been considerable media and analyst focus and hyperbole on the causes, durations, and impacts of the outages.

Saugatuck continues to believe that Cloud IT as a phenomenon, and Cloud IT providers and services in general, can and should be relied upon to deliver critical IT-as-a-service. Cloud services and providers tend to be built for, and managed with, greater reliability and security than the vast majority of traditional data centers and on-premise systems.

What Is Happening? — Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce GuptilI had the privilege of chairing this week’s Cloud Control conference in Boston. The two-day event provided great insights and guidance from a mix of providers and users regarding what has worked, and why, when it comes to integrating and managing Cloud with enterprise data center strategies and operations.

Saugatuck readers and clients would not be surprised to find that the core, recurring theme, from Saugatuck’s opening keynote through user and vendor presentations to the ending panel session, was this:

What is Happening? —Saugatuck recently conducted a survey of ongoing registered readers that included a question that asked them to rank their top research topic priorities over the next 12-18 months. By a significant margin, Business Applications / Cloud Business Solutions and Cloud Business Strategies topped the list of research topics that readers want Saugatuck to focus on, with 88 percent and 86 percent respectively, ranking them as “critical” or “very important” – with Emerging Business Models following close behind at 83 percent.

While all three are Cloud-focused, Saugatuck believes the latter two topics demonstrate the significant impact that the Cloud is having on business strategies and business models – across both user enterprises and providers, as we march forward into a period of accelerating disruption and innovation.