Top 5 Cloud Computing Trends

Since cloud computing seems to be on everyone’s lips, it is quite hard to realize what the latest trends are and in what direction it is developing. Sometimes it seems that there is more confusion than clarification. Should the cloud be private or hybrid? Should you choose IaaS, SaaS or PaaS?

In past articles I have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each cloud technology. Now, let’s take a look at the latest trends in cloud computing. It is expected that both large enterprises and SMBs will adopt cloud computing technology at an exponential rate.

I am generalizing here what I believe to be the top 5 cloud computing trends:

1. IT departments will be forever changed. I have previously discussed how cloud computing is changing the IT environment – the IT infrastructure will be crucially transformed and new skills will be needed, thus pushing IT people to adjust themselves to this trend. The need for IT support will be reduced, but people will need to understand how to integrate the newest technologies in their companies and manage the cloud vendors.
2. Cloud security will no longer be an issue. This is related directly to the first point, as IT professionals discover the fact that the managed cloud can be more secure than a physical  environment that is managed by your own IT staff that are responsible for many IT projects.
3. Custom cloud computing services: Cloud migrations span from migrating from physical to SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.  This is a lot of ground to cover for an IT firm trying to be your cloud experts. Outsourced IT organizations will concentrate on automating very specific migrations and become the experts in those types of migrations. An example is outsourcing your exchange environment. This is one of the most painful cloud migrations and IT companies focus just on this type of migration offering services and automated software to make sure the migration is smooth and painless.
4. Custom software development will shift towards the cloud. Legacy software applications will need to be refactored to run more efficiently on cloud environments. This will increase software development and outsourcing will experience a boom.
5. Innovation – probably the most important one 🙂 Innovation will drive down cloud computing costs, increase security and help with migration from physical to cloud. As cloud computing innovation continues it will be difficult to make the argument that companies should not move to the cloud.

Moreover, I also believe that an alignment of standards is necessary – so far there are organizations such as The Green Grid and Cloud Security Alliance, but a comprehensive guide/entity to which most cloud providers to adhere is yet to be created.

All in all, I believe that more businesses to will get over the fear of embracing cloud computing as IT directors start to fully understand how their businesses could benefit from this new technology. I am expecting an even wider cloud adoption with a more accelerated increase.

Photo source: https://www.sxc.hu/photo/1392340