Your corporate data needs to be in the public cloud

Looking for your first cloud computing project? Chances are you're considering a very small, very low-risk application to create on a public PaaS or IaaS cloud provider.

Using the public cloud lets you leverage this data in new ways, thanks to new tools -- without having to pay millions of dollars for new infrastructure to support the database processing. When you have such inexpensive capacity, you'll figure out new ways to analyze your business using this data, and that will lead to improved decisions and -- call me crazy -- a much better business. Isn't that the objective?

The public clouds just to say you're in them

If you're playing with the public clouds just to say you're in them, while together avoiding any potential downside, you're to tell the truth doing more harm than good. Cloud innovation has evolved in the last five years, so put aside those old prejudices and assumptions. Now is the time to take calculated risks and get some of your data assets out on the cloud. Most of the Global 2000 will find value there.

This article, "Your corporate data needs to be in the public cloud -- starting now," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Linthicum's Cloud Computing blog and track the latest developments in cloud computing at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business research news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.