Contributed article by Ditlev Bredahl, CEO, OnApp

OnApp 2014 Predictions: cloud becomes everything as a service

Most people are sick of the hype around ‘cloud', but the good news this year has been a shift away from cloudwashing to focus on the real value that cloud can deliver. While the hype will probably be with us for a few years yet, I think the cloud as-a-service model will slowly but surely become the standard mode of operation for all aspects of IT. I think we'll make good progress on this next year, in all kinds of ways - here are a few of the most important.

Cloud evolves

I think 2014 will see "cloud" services expand to comprise other service types too. We'll move away from the silos of infrastructure we have today, where your application stack uses different types of IT (some in-house, some delivered as a service, some on traditional dedicated hardware - with no integration) towards a more fluid environment where everything is delivered as a service, and you can run your workloads where they work best, with one pane of glass for management and provisioning.

Federation

Cloud abstracted the workload from the hardware it runs on, and the second change I think we'll see is that abstraction being extended to location, too. Service providers will begin to federate their resources so anyone can access "cloud services" - that will encompass virtual and dedicated, public and private - from any provider they choose, and get access to IT resources in any location they need.

Security

The "Summer of Snowden" has brought security back into the spotlight for everyone, consumers and businesses alike. Snowden's NSA exposé has highlighted the fact that there really is no certainty about who has access to your data once it leaves your hands. If it isn't the government that's looking at your data, you can be sure that marketers are, or any of the vendors you work and share your information with.

People will have to change how they think about security and start working on the assumption that all data is insecure, unless they take steps to secure it. Making it secure will also begin to evolve into a service, just like applications and hardware have: I think people will pay for security-as-a-service to keep some or all of their data secret, though how such a service will be delivered and priced, remains to be seen.

##

About the Author

Before founding OnApp, Ditlev led UK2 Group's hosting companies as MD and CEO. He has founded many successful web hosting brands and is an active 'angel investor' in technology start-ups. Ditlev is Danish, lives in the UK but travels frequently to visit clients and speak at events around the world.