(Jonathan Shannon, pictured, is chief technology officer at Cloudgration, a Boston-based cloud services and solutions provider.)

Ben Franklin would probably have made a great IT strategist. “When you're finished changing, you're finished" he famously said. 

His quote is just as true with IT and cloud computing today as it was with Franklin 250 years ago during the American Revolution.

Cloud computing has become ubiquitous. In RightScale’s 2015 State of the Cloud survey, 88 percent of companies said they use cloud. These aren’t just developers or huge companies either; we work with a number of mid-sized companies, for instance, that are getting into cloud in a big way. When it’s managed correctly, cloud reduces IT costs and increases innovation.

Today, companies are accelerating their usage in large part because of the constant innovation from public cloud providers.

Beyond all that innovation, and users’ enthusiasm, there are real-world challenges in becoming a cloud-first company, or, if you’re an IT consultant, enabling your clients to be “cloud first.”

These challenges aren’t always technical either; they’re often cultural. What are the steps for companies to move from traditional on-premise computing to running the enterprise in a cloud environment? How can companies not only choose the right vendors but successfully implement those solutions?

Organizations only want partners that help them enter or enhance their journey to the cloud quickly and hassle free.

Here are four things we’ve learned as we try to transform our clients through cloud.