An early warning regarding over-zealous ‘cloud’ adoption appears in a paper by Bryan Ford entitled “Icebergs in the Clouds: the Other Risks of Cloud Computing“. This may be appropriate with the current approach to the Public Sector Network (PSN) and others as a ‘network-of networks’ which is where the review strikes hardest.
In the rush for adoption, and I am one of those supporting it, we must not forget that there is a massive level of complexity when layering, linking or otherwise baking up virtual servers, with load and power balancing being in the hands of software. Whilst there are real cost savings to be made in this approach, I would argue that at least some of those savings are spent in adding the ‘piece of string’ to the ‘belt and braces’ that straight forward risk management will have taken.
This should not be seen as risk aversion but making allowances and recognising the necessarily complex systems we are building and allowing, to some extent, to manage themselves.
Posted by greatemancipator 
The Great E-mancipator 