The transition to "cloud also" or "cloud first" is well under way for manufacturers around the globe, according to survey results from International Data Corporation. In fact, in the United States, 41 percent of manufacturing respondents indicated they are accessing IT resources via the public cloud, based on the IDC Global Technology and Industry Research Organization IT Survey, 2014.

Analyst Insight: The market's understanding of cloud solutions is maturing. We are steadily - and correctly - moving away from what the cloud is to focus on what it can mean for our businesses. For many, what it means now is an opportunity to reduce capital expenditures and free up IT resources. This will change as we look less at whether cloud solutions can do the same things as on-premises and focus on what they can do differently. - Scott Pezza, Principal Analyst at Blue Hill Research

Vendors "are seeing the cloud as the opportunity for the future and are looking at revenue models and thinking of offering a subscription-based service to reduce clients' CAPEX," according to Jagdish Rebello, senior manager for cloud and computer electronics at IHS. "Microsoft's doing that, Oracle's trying to do that, Google's doing that, and Salesforce.com is seeing explosive growth."

For all its promise of lower cost and easier management of software applications, cloud technology has yet to be fully embraced by supply chain managers.

In the world of supply chains, signing on a new partner or trading partner has typically marked the beginning of a marathon. Whether by electronic data interchange, EDIFACT, cXML, ebXML, value added networks, portals or the rest of the alphabet soup of connectivity approaches, a great deal of time and effort is required to get trading partners’ systems aligned - even if trading hubs are involved. Every company has a different system, and different processes for getting things done. For a company with thousands of trading partners, imagine how much in resources it gobbles up just to manage and keep every partnership aligned. Of course, cloud changes all that right?

When is it better to use a public cloud versus a managed hosting or collocation environment? A recent case study finds that if an organization is spending more than $7,644 in Amazon’s cloud each month, then it can be cheaper to operate a private cloud.