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Just a few short decades ago, the most expensive IT resources were computers, and human operators were interchangeable. Now the roles are reversed -- technology assets have become a commodity while organizations place a premium on people.

To that end, the adoption of cloud computing brings with it a series of changes that directly impact the IT workforce. Failing to account for those changes can reduce the value of the cloud and increase IT costs and dysfunction. There are at least four major areas of human cost to assess when planning a cloud strategy and selecting a cloud provider.

No. 1: Cost Of Changed Expectations

Employees aren't rubes when it comes to the cloud. Sure, most people can't differentiate software-as-a-service from platform-as-a-service, but the recent consumerization-of-IT phenomenon has reset expectations. Most people regularly use cloud-based email clients, collaboration tools and even business apps. They've come to expect a new class of services for their digital consumption, and those expectations will be present for any cloud initiative your company starts.

Developers will expect more sophisticated deployments, project teams will expect easier acquisition of environments, and end users will expect their systems to go live faster.

As a result of these expectations, organizations face human costs in a range of areas. What must change? IT organizations must streamline server requisition and approval processes. They must update service catalogs. They may have to update configuration management systems, as well as retool finance systems and processes to move toward IT-as-a-service.