The Cloud has finally arrived, along with several big cloud trends.
In 2011, data storage in the Cloud became the new IT trend for personal and corporate applications. Acting as a wireless server, the Cloud allows users to store data online rather than on their own hard drive. With the Cloud, users are no longer tied to one device. With the popularity of tablets rapidly increasing, the demand for fast access to data and seamless wireless data storage is solved with the several cloud trends.
In the InformationWeek article, “5 Big Cloud Trends for 2012,” Judith Hurwitz suggests that Cloud usage will accelerate and transform into an integral part of a businesses’ IT infrastructure during 2012. There are many benefits for businesses to switch to cloud computing. “Companies are discovering that it is much easier to experiment and innovate with cloud computing than with tradition computing models.” The Cloud also enables businesses to increase data storage without having to change their infrastructure. Hurwitz predicts that the five big cloud trends.
Here is an excerpt from the article.
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Big Trend #1. Cloud Service Management becomes a requirement for adoption.
It is becoming apparent that companies will not adopt a single cloud deployment model, but rather will use a combination of various public cloud services (including Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Platform as a Service), private cloud services as well as their traditional computing environment. This is especially true for companies in the mid-market and even large enterprises. The ability to manage this hybrid environment will be the difference between success and failure. 2012 will be the year when customers start to plan and implement a service management strategy for the cloud.
Big Trend #2. Cloud Security expands to encompass privacy, compliance, and governance.
Company executives have been worrying about cloud security ever since Amazon began offering public cloud services. While there are a variety of opinions about how secure various cloud services are, there has not been a consistent best practice related to cloud security. That is changing for 2012. This will be the year when IT and business management will begin to deal with the subtleties of setting rules and processes–which clouds to use under which circumstances. For example, open cloud communities with little security and no governance will be of limited value for companies that have to comply with industry and governmental requirements. On the other hand, there is an emerging segment of public cloud offerings intended for companies that want a higher level of security and governance. Increasingly, organizations are looking to private clouds when governance needs to be strictly enforced.
Big Trend #3. The Service Level Agreement becomes a key buying criterion.
While the idea of a service level agreement is not new, it is not well understood in the context of cloud computing. One of the most important changes I expect in 2012 is that companies will be taking a much harder look at the way cloud service providers provide SLAs for their services. While all cloud computing providers offer a contractual service level agreement, most are written to protect the vendor rather than the customer. In 2012, customers will begin demanding Service Level terms based on their governance and customer requirements.
Big Trend #4. Corporate management turns attention to security of Big Data.
Companies are beginning to adopt technologies that enable them to manage and analyze huge volumes of data from many different sources. As attention to Big Data expands in 2012, so will the concerns about protecting both the security and integrity of this composite data source.
Big Trend # 5. The new definition of the computing environment changes customer expectations.
While organizations have always been concerned about the performance of their customer facing environments, the advent of hybrid cloud computing models will add to the level of urgency. There is a difference between the level of control that IT had over the data center and the control of a hybrid environment that includes public and private cloud services (some Software as a Service applications, capacity on demand for peak times, etc.). Companies will demand the ability to monitor and measure performance from the customer experience perspective.
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