What Does the Future Of Cloud Computing Look Like?

According to IT research firm Gartner, the worldwide market for cloud computing could be worth $20.6 Billion in 2016.

The International Data Corporation or IDC has also predicted that IT cloud service revenues would reach $43.2 Billion in the USA by 2016 from the 2011 level of $18.5 Billion. These figures confirm that the concept has brought a revolution into the business world by allowing organizations and individuals to use virtual servers to carry out their business.

However, the popularity is also accompanied by fears and doubts about the security of data and information being stored on these clouds. Although more and more people are accepting the benefits of cloud computing, a large proportion of them are hesitant to adopt it fully because of the security concerns. According to Elleen Smith, IDC program manager, process manufacturing, professional services and discrete manufactures industries are considered to be less antagonistic to risks associated with shifting to clouds.

Factors that can Change the Future of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has introduced newer options to organizations in terms of application providers and has done away with the need to maintain one’s own applications on premises. The use of on-premises business applications suites like SAP or Oracle ties up an organization. But looking ahead, more and more businesses are searching for alternatives and this will lead them to adopt cloud services. These businesses need to think about the security concerns and ensure that they are choosing a good cloud hosting service provider who can meet its service level agreements.

A 2012 survey on it’s future has revealed that nearly 50% of CIOs have complete confidence in this ability, which is significantly higher than the 11% in 2011. Another factor that is affecting the adoption rate is the inability of several cloud services providers to deliver all the time on what they promise.

The privacy of the information stored on a cloud also plays a key role in an organization’s decision to migrate to a cloud. Also businesses want the flexibility of shifting their applications from one cloud to another. So the cloud hosting services need to ensure that they are delivering what they are actually promising in their service agreements.

Other factors that are expected to drive the future of cloud computing industry are:

Mobility: The ability of service providers to deliver their services to client anywhere
Innovation: Offering of newer applications to attract more and more businesses
Scalability: Instantaneous provisioning of additional resources to meet peak demands or surges of cloud based resources as is being done by Amazon
Cost: Businesses are looking to adopt to cloud computing not only because it is cheaper and cost effective but because they have a fundamental need for it. Adoption of cloud computing allows a business to separate core areas from non-core areas and then migrate the non core areas like IT to the cloud hosting service. The segments that are expected to drive the future of the cloud computing industry are media and entertainment, social collaborations, mobile and e-commerce.

Source: GoArticles by Author Greg Stout. Author is the owner of Zapcloud website; his goal is to provide you with all of the latest information — trends, startups, successes, failures, and reviews. Check out Zapcloud News section for a list of what is being reporting about cloud computing.

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