Last year, you were a hero. After success with CRM in the cloud, you expanded to backups, then a database application for batch processing. Life was good, costs were lower, even remote workers were happy.

But you didn't stop there—the lure of on-demand was too strong. You pushed to include Internet-based VoIP access for remote offices and encouraged videoconferencing worldwide. Innovative, bold, frugal, you were a shoo-in for employee of the year. You even got to say "cloud paradigm" at parties with a straight face.

Then, things started slowing down. And not just the economy, but the performance of your cloud apps too. It all started innocently enough, with a few complaints about Internet slowness, then escalated when the CIO got blindsided by the VP of sales in front of the whole board. Suddenly, you've gone from hotshot innovator to hot seat: "Why didn’t we know remote workers were having problems? What’s being done to address the speed issue? Why did Google Apps go down last week? What about the outage in Sri Lanka? And why is my Comcast at home so slow?"

Suddenly, you're on the hook to support the entire Internet. Turns out, of all the goodness the cloud delivers, the one thing it can't promise is what users crave most—speed.

Download the full InformationWeek Analytics report: Slow Commotion: When The Internet Meets Critical Applications