Editorial Articles

Phil Worms, Marketing Director at iomart on cloud computing

A year ago seemingly every prediction list featured cloud computing as the number one game-changer, the one trend that would have the greatest impact on the delivery of IT services. Some went as far as to predict that cloud should be viewed as the single most evolutionary computing development since the web itself. Not many argued against the list compilers' rankings, but many viewed the prediction with a healthy pinch of cynicism.

It was Sir Winston Churchill who famously stated that “It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.” One year on, bestowed with the marvellous gift of hindsight, and we are now in a position to judge whether the soothsayers were on the money. In 2010, did we reach for the cloud? The answer has to be a resounding yes, with the reality matching, and quite possibly exceeding, the hype.

So what of my top ten cloud predictions for 2011?

The commercial battle for the cloud will be won on service and the strength of Service Level Guarantees. Cloud computing can be ‘sliced and diced’ on so many levels or ‘layers’ guaranteeing that no single company will successfully ‘own’ or dominate every layer (despite the M&A deals that are currently dominating the headlines.)

Customers will buy as their computing requirements from every layer within the cloud, be it the infrastructure layer, the hosting layer, the development layer or the apps layer, as and when they are needed. No ‘killer’ app has been identified, and probably will never materialise, so basic hosting, email, back-up, data-storage and archiving will drive the market past the early adopter stage.

Vendor lock-in will be rebuffed – customers will demand the flexibility to switch from Xen to VMware etc as their requirements demand. We will see a rise in the number of calls for standards and certifications – but they won’t arrive sometime soon. Data protection and compliance will become a more prevalent issue for cloud service providers. Exact geographical/territorial location of the cloud will be a key selling point. Hybrid and private clouds will be the flavours of choice for the corporate market, with hosted private clouds outnumbering internal ones. The hype will die down, cloud definitions will crystallise and we will (hopefully) witness the death throes of the ‘As as Service’ descriptor. The community cloud will start to gather momentum. The myth that the cloud is insecure will be put to the sword.

Whether my top ten proves ‘prophetic or pathetic’ is quite irrelevant. What is absolutely certain is that the cloud is not going away.
 
Phil Worms, Marketing Director at iomart

www.iomart.com