“If someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.� These words by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com perhaps best outline the current goals and future strategies of cloud computing. After all, it is about making your business more efficient and proficient! With cloud computing technology taking off in a big way in the last two years, there is tremendous scope for evolving trends and new developments. So, let’s take a look at the five possible trends that will impact the cloud computing strategies in the year ahead. 1. Hybrid Cloud is an imperative So, you want to manage workloads on-premises and across multiple public or private clouds. A growing portfolio of tools will allow you to do so, potentially giving you a single dashboard for all of your cloud systems. 2. Cloud-centric Approach In order to make the best use of the cloud model, the applications of the companies will have to be designed such that the cloud technology is optimally utilized instead of just transferring the existing workloads on to the cloud! After all the companies investing in cloud resources are looking at making the most use of it. In order to do so, many of them have started focusing on making the programing tailor-made for cloud technology. Gartner advises enterprises to look beyond the migration of enterprise workloads to the creation of cloud-optimized applications that fully exploit the potential of the cloud to deliver global-class applications. 3. The Mobile Cloud! As the world is wrapping up in our hands and the mobiles getting more and more sophisticated with each passing day, it is only but obvious that the cloud mobile cloud computing will become the new buzz word. The future will see mobile cloud computing enriching the computational resources available to mobile users, network operators and cloud computing providers. 4. Small to Mid-Sized Businesses Going for Cloud With the benefits of cloud bringing the much sought relief in the investment required by smaller and mid-sized companies, it is expected that more of these companies will join the cloud bandwagon. Cloud allows the small and mid-sized companies to be free of the security concerns by having all data off their physical premises and also provides an opportunity to move on to the latest technology without much investment.
5. Enhancing Security Having all the data located outside the company’s security purview has always been a major concern with cloud services. Traditional security mechanisms such as identification, authentication and authorization are outmoded for clouds. So, when it comes to data security, companies would strive towards having their data encrypted and towards having automated encryption keys in their hand.