Fujitsu today launched its new Cloud Consulting service to help explain the uses and benefits of the cloud to confused executives and IT decision-makers.
The company, which is also a cloud service provider, has released the 60-page 'White Book of Cloud Adoption' as a simple ABC of cloud terms and key considerations.
However, it also offers experts to give advice to the company's existing and potential customers.
The head of Fujitsu's cloud consulting in the UK and Ireland, Jo Millott, said the company had launched the service because decision-making about cloud was no-longer just the preserve of IT departments.
"There is some confusion in the market about what cloud is and what choices should be made," she said.
"Fujitsu's Cloud Consulting Service will provide advice and guidance on how cloud should be exploited to drive business value as well as providing expert advice on key considerations such as security and legal/data compliance."
Fujitsu claimed the time was right for a consultancy because "after several years of industry hype and mounting expectation," the cloud was set to move from theory to practice.
Industry analyst Gartner recently predicted 20 per cent of businesses would own no IT assets by 2012 and global revenues of $150 billion were expected by 2013.
Fujitsu itself is investing $1.2 billion in developing its cloud capability in 2011 and predicts cloud-related services will account for a third of its new business by 2015.
The company provides both Infrastructure and Software-as-a-Service. Offering consultancy services as well is something Millott said put Fujitsu in a strongly competitive position.
"Some IT service providers can offer strong consultancy credentials but are lacking in the physical infrastructure to ever deliver on their recommendations," she said.
"I firmly believe that by combining Fujitsu's proven infrastructure and technology capabilities with a formalised consulting practice, we have a unique proposition in the IT services market."
