Hubspan predicted TCO would continue to be the primary driver of cloud adoption due to scalable costs.
The increased adoption of
cloud computing will shift how companies implement solutions, and cloud
integration will become a way to boost efficiency and get closer to customers,
according to the findings of a new report from Hubspan. The provider of
cloud-based business integration solutions made its top predictions for 2012 in
cloud computing, business integration and enterprise adoption based on insights
from IT industry analysts and enterprise customers.
The report noted that in the
past decade the consumerization of IT has continued to spread across numerous
sectors of the industry, from PCs and email to hosting services. "As this trend
makes its way to the cloud, customers will have greater expectations around
real-time visibility into the supply chain and achieving a lower TCO [total
cost of ownership] through deploying cloud-based integration solutions," the
report said. "Hubspan believes these changes will drive a disruptive shift for
IT over the next year."
Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems will focus on delivering integration networks targeting vertical
industries, the report predicted, as an ongoing effort to improve collaboration
and process automation, will drive on-premise and cloud-based ERP and CRM
vendors to look to the cloud to build their network communities as a way to
extend their end-to-end business processes as well as deliver incremental value
to customers.
The report warned that economic
uncertainty would prevail and drive companies to get even closer to existing
customers, and Hubspan predicts that companies will focus on maximizing their
relationships with existing customers and partners as a significant contributor
to top-line financial performance.
"We will see greater focus
on solving customer needs, adapting solutions to fit their requirements and
providing new ways to deliver value without forcing them to change the way they
currently do business," the report said. "Companies are flagging these areas of
opportunity by finding ways to leverage existing customer infrastructures with
minimal incremental investments."
With nearly two-thirds of
American adult Internet users participating in social networks, according to a
survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, expectations for how
businesses connect and communicate have evolved. People are accustomed to
constant communication in both their personal and professional lives and will
often modify old ERP systems with user-friendly tablet and phone applications.
Hubspan predicts that
companies will need to transition their interactions with customers from a
handshake to a conversation, to follow the changing expectations of society. In
order to do this, companies will use real-time commerce technologies to reach
not just the customer, but the end user as well.
Hubspan also predicted TCO
would continue to be the primary driver of cloud adoption due to scalable costs
and consumption models offered by cloud vendors that simply cannot be matched
by on-premise solutions. A close-second driver of adoption will be the
need to squeeze costs out of critical business processes through automation and
integration throughout the extended enterprise. As cloud computing continues to
evolve and security standards are established, Hubspan predicts that during the
next year enterprises will see the cloud as a viable option to run
business-critical systems.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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