Brian Patrick Donaghy | Wired
We’re at an obvious consensus—cloud computing is growing at an unprecedented rate. Market Research Media says the cloud market will reach $270 billion in 2012 and Gartner predicts it will be over the $148 billion mark by 2014, much greater than Forrester’s forecast of over $118 billion for the same year. Analysts and leaders in the cloud computing sector have agreed upon one thing: the global demand for hosted IT services will push cloud computing’s rapid growth as cloud-based solutions continue to offer significant resolutions for organizations of all types and sizes.
As we close out 2012 and begin to look towards a new year, I’m predicting the landscape of cloud computing will change immensely as cloud computing becomes inevitable and businesses grasp the value of cloud infrastructure, business applications for the cloud and platforms hosted in the cloud. A few of my cloud predictions for 2013 include:
Cloud Adoption will move into early majority state in the U.S.
With all of the publicity and hype surrounding the cloud and business applications “in the cloud”, you would think the majority of businesses are already using it. However, we are still in the beginning stages of the migration and 2013 will mark the year when businesses realize the cloud’s significance. Similar to the adoption path of Linux in the 1990’s and SaaS in the 2000’s, cloud computing will move through Moore’s curve in a similar fashion. And according to Moore’s Adoption Curve theories, techie innovators and visionary early adaptors are radically different from the pragmatic early majority. 2013 will mark the year when the majority of businesses adopt, or critically examine the idea to adopt, cloud services.
Local cloud networks will emerge. With issues of trust, proximity and data sovereignty surfacing, we will continue to see Local Cloud Networks—or public and private infrastructure cloud delivered by your nearby internet provider, Telco, MSO and data center—emerge in 2013. Cloud computing is an affective business solution but face-to-face support is critical as we remain in the “learning” phase. With Local Cloud Networks, businesses can lessen the risks of jumping on the cloud computing bandwagon with added instruction and assistance.
Business Consumerization of Enterprise IT Provisioning and Usage.
Orchestrated private cloud gives IT departments a generalized infrastructure where they can set policy, security and charge back. Enterprise appstores with internal apps, virtual desktops and servers give the business consumer access and ease of use. In the same way Consumerization of IT has led to company-supported personal technology, or DIY application builders, businesses will expect and push for consumerized cloud computing.
Community Clouds will Advance.
Community clouds grew greatly in 2012, partly due to the healthcare regulations surrounding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which regulates standards for health-related data protection and storage. Community clouds are useful to companies who are split up by industry or geography and better suit customers who need a customized cloud service, opposed to generic cloud computing. For example, a Telco Community Cloud provided specifically for Telco DR to meet specific FCC regulations would be much easier for Telco businesses to utilize than a generic cloud that would still need to undergo customization. As we look ahead to a new year, community clouds will be come more prevalent, as vertical industries—namely government, healthcare and financial sectors—seek the benefits and security provided by cloud computing.
The rapid growth of the cloud computing industry presents new business opportunities and opens doors for SMB’s, large corporations and all businesses in between. As a disruptive technology, the cloud computing market will grow six times within a decade, according to Forrester. With rapid growth comes a rapidly changing landscape in which early adopters are the ones to see the greatest benefit. In 2013 and beyond, cloud computing will change the way we do business.
Brian Patrick Donaghy is CEO of Appcore, llc. Appcore® manufactures the business of cloud computing. Appcore delivers Infrastructure-as-a-Service technology to telcos, data centers, fiber rings, and enterprises to enable public (service provider) and private (enterprise) cloud environments. Our flagship product, Appcore Onsite™, is a certified, integrated stack of hardware and software systems designed to be data center roll-in ready, accelerating the deployment of cloud environments.
