Companies that are revolutionizing cloud computing

As cloud computing continues its rapid growth in the public consciousness, industry leaders know they must be consistently fast and innovative with ideas, products, and services. A company that is slow to react to the ever-emerging changes and challenges will find itself quickly playing a dangerous game of catch-up. Three of the biggest names in setting the industry pace, EMC, Amazon, and Cisco have all made headlines in recent months for their newest contributions to the cloud sector.

Earlier this summer, EMC made a splash with their acquisition of Syncplicity, a cloud storage company.  Syncplicity, originally founded by three ex-Microsoft employees, offers a service similar to Dropbox. What sets Syncplicity apart from its competition is a greater emphasis on security.  This focus makes it a more attractive option for businesses, as employees who wish to use personal devices to access their office files can do so with less risk of compromising the company’s data.  EMC’s purchase of Syncplicity, coupled with their announcement of forty-plus other cloud-based product improvements, highlight the tech giant’s commitment to being a thought leader in cloud innovation.

Amazon is another company putting cloud services at the forefront of their plans for the future.  This past Monday Amazon launched Glacier, which they describe as “a secure, reliable and extremely low cost storage service designed for data archiving and backup.”  Glacier earned its name due to its lack of speed, as it is optimized for files that users rarely access, but still need stored for extended periods of time, such as medical files or photos. Glacier’s low base cost, coupled with its pay-for-what-you-use policy, should make it an attractive option for people looking to take advantage of cloud technology without breaking the bank.

In addition to Glacier, Amazon’s recently retooled Cloud Player music client has earned positive early reviews as an alternative to Apple’s iTunes Match. A key offering that Amazon’s service boasts is “the ability to scan a user’s computer to match songs to a master database,” unlike iTunes which requires users to upload songs to the cloud themselves.  With features such as these, Amazon hopes to gain ground on Apple, while continuing to establish itself as a leader in cloud-based personal media storage.

Cisco has been making waves of their own in the cloud industry. Their Unified Compute System (UCS) continues to be one of the fastest most secure cloud systems in the market. Enterprise providers of this platform are creating hybrid cloud” that would permit shared and private cloud usage within the same general framework. Like Syncplicity, flexibility and security were among the main issues Cisco Enterprise hosting providers like NaviSite can offer with this type of solution. It will be interesting to see how each of these company’s innovations plays out over the next few months, as well as what they have in store for their next cloud-based service offerings. One thing is for certain; cloud development is going to continue to be a focal point for the foreseeable future.

Photo source: https://www.sxc.hu/photo/204735