After months of collaborative works with a team of seasoned analysts, our special report on cloud computing entitled Clouds in 2010: Vendor Optimism Meets Enterprise Realities finally came to a completion. Our interviews with 25 cloud computing thought leaders about technology milestones and their metrics to measure success were inspirational and thought provoking.

On the agenda of the business executives we interviewed, cloud computing is an act for action. From enabling the use of cloud computing services to deploying enterprise-specific cloud computing models, business leaders are full of excitement. Their optimism is not without reason.

First, the new economic reality is driving enterprise customers to look for innovative IT solutions to keep their businesses afloat, if not prospering as they used to be. Also, technology barriers to move workloads into the cloud continue to fall as more vendors are taking an active role in addressing pertinent problems associated with service reliability, security, and interoperability. It could be in the form of strategic partnerships such as the technology coalition between Cisco, VMware, and EMC to boost the deployment of enterprise-class private clouds; and goal-oriented investments such as the acquisition of Cassatt by CA to expand its expertise in meeting the changing requirements of today’s data centers.

I agree that these are good signs of a potentially innovative market development. But healthy market dynamism should be based on a fine balance between an optimistic supply and a realistic demand. With growing pressure to control costs without compromising performance, one can only guess today’s corporations’ next moves. How do enterprise customers approach cloud computing in these days? Are they approaching the cloud with greatest ease?

The recent history of IT transformation in the business world should be a good indicator. On the demand side, business transformation initiatives are far from ending. From bandwidth utilization, IT automation, to cloud service management, the power of cloud computing has whetted corporate appetite for productivity at low cost. The growing availability of IT as a service will essentially shift IT’s role from managing hardware and software to managing services and providers.

Will 2010 be a banner year for cloud computing? Let’s prepare to review the special report with multiple lenses.