
Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2014. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by JF van der Zwet, Interxion
The Expanding Reach of Cloud Computing in 2014
Most of the IT industry is in agreement that cloud computing will
continue to grow throughout 2014 (scratch the surface and the figures will blow
your mind!). As such, the enterprise IT department is becoming an important hub
in most organizations, taking the lead on strategic decisions rather than
remaining in the background. The tsunami of data created by financial
transactions, medical records, mobile phones, social media and the Internet of
Things, as well as many of the strategic decisions coming out of the IT
department will be related to cloud. However, it's also important to remember
that, in today's enterprise IT environment, not every workload or application
is suited for the cloud - that transition is more strategic than a "drag and
drop."
As organizations try to fit more and more of their IT assets,
databases and applications into cloud environments, this fact will become much
clearer and we will see more definition around what should - and should not -
be supported by it. In the meantime, cloud computing will expand to play a
leading role in big data management; data center virtualization and cloud
services, specifically. There will also be an interesting ripple effect in the
industry following this expansion of cloud applications, particularly impacting
service providers' focus on the customer experience and hiring.
Big data gets bigger
More and more, cloud computing is making data processing and
analysis a real-time activity. Up until now, big data was very focused on
historical performance analysis. There has always been a close relationship
between big data and cloud computing, as the cloud provides unlimited compute
power and storage to support big data usage, yet by adding real-time processing
capabilities, we will see a rise in real-time data analytics and an evolution
in the products that companies can build.
Cloud is the new hardware
For servers, storage and networking equipment to function as one big
"machine" in which applications can rapidly scale up and down, the
entire infrastructure must be virtualized and centrally-controlled - that is,
software-defined. Ultimately, this trend toward virtualization goes beyond SDN
to include every system in the data center. Advanced software control schemes
pioneered by public cloud providers will continue to trickle down into the
enterprise IT environment.
Cloud providers add
gravity to the cloud
As the cloud becomes the only environment in which large data
volumes can be stored, accessed and analyzed on demand, cloud providers will
focus on adding new cloud services to attract customers and encourage user
stickiness. Integrated cloud offerings will extend hybrid cloud environments
beyond purely fixed systems to influence more mobile networks; systems, ideas
and solutions; people and things; and intelligence and information.
Ramifications to the wider
IT industry
Recent and upcoming IPOs stemming from the growing success of the
cloud space will force cloud providers to evolve quickly, especially in the
area of customer retention. With disillusion on the horizon and much shorter subscription
terms, it's easy for a customer to switch providers. Cloud providers will,
thus, have to focus on retaining their existing customer base and avoid high
churn rates that may cripple their revenue streams before they can enter the "slope
of enlightenment."
Battle of the rock stars
A big part of stopping churn is giving customers the services and
capabilities that they want, and that means software developers are the new rock
stars. With the benefits of platforms like Azure, Pivotal, Salesforce and even
Amazon, more enterprises will be able to put their code on one or more of these
platforms. But, to do that, they will need more developers. The big platforms
will battle for the best engineers' favours and enterprises will pay for their
status.
Ultimately, we will see the cloud expand into many more facets of IT
in order to better address the needs of the enterprise. With that said, we need
to stop saying that everything will eventually go to the cloud. I don't think
that we will ever see an enterprise market that is 100 percent grounded in
cloud computing, as so many IT functions require the stability or dedicated
infrastructure of a private environment. However, there are many opportunities
for the IT department to deliver innovation to their workforce and customers through
the cloud, ultimately resulting in much higher user satisfaction across the
board.
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