The Future of Cloud Computing

The second annual Future of Cloud Computing survey (conducted by North Bridge Venture Partners) was released last week, and the results were interesting to say the least.  This survey seeks to capture industry perceptions, sentiments, and upcoming trends in the field of cloud computing by interviewing a broad span of industry experts including gurus, typical users, and vendors from leading established companies, emerging companies, and start ups.  

The respondents to the Future of Cloud Computing Survey were interviewed on a broad range of important topics related to cloud computing including “drivers for cloud computing, inhibitors, best practices, sourcing, hiring, total cost of ownership (TCO), cloud’s impact on multiple business sectors, and emerging cloud technologies.” There were 785 participants this survey including Amazon Web Services, Citrix, and SAP.

Some of the key findings in this Future of Cloud Computing Survey include:

• Companies are accelerating their trust in cloud solutions, with 50 percent of respondents confident that cloud solutions are viable for mission critical business applications.
• Scalability remains the top reason for adopting the cloud, with 57 percent of companies identifying it as the most important driver for cloud adoption.  Business agility ranked second among drivers for cloud adoption, with 54 percent of respondents focused on agility.
• Software as a service (SaaS) is currently, and is expected to remain the primary type of cloud investment, with 82 percent of respondents citing it as in use today, and 88 percent expecting to use it five years from now.
• The top 3 areas in which “cloud formations” are coming together are backup and archiving (43 percent), business continuity (25 percent), collaboration tools (22 percent), and big data processing (19 percent).
• Cloud users are shifting sentiments with regard to public vs. hybrid cloud platforms.
  • Currently, 40 percent of respondents’ are deploying public cloud strategies, with 36 percent emphasizing a hybrid approach
  • Within five years, hybrid clouds will be the emphasis of 52 percent of respondents’ cloud strategies.
• With an increase in trust of the cloud, big data is emerging as a major focus for vendors and end-users alike.
  • 80 percent of respondents identify big data as the most likely sector to be disrupted by cloud computing 
  • Vendors identify analytics and big data as the first and second most important cloud service to provide, respectively.
• The majority of respondents (53 percent) believe that cloud computing maintains a lower TCO and creates a less complex IT workflow.

As you can see, this survey predicts a high level of growth in use of cloud computing for the upcoming year.  User confidence and interest in cloud computing is much higher than it was this time last year and is expected to continue to increase.  If you have a small or medium sized business and would like to learn how the cloud could benefit your company, you should consider meeting with with The Vested Group to discuss your business plan and options.  We can show you how a cloud based business management system such as NetSuite can take your company to the next level.  Contact The Vested Group for a full demonstration today.