Cloud computing will continue to gain acceptance, despite concerns around
such issues as security, availability and functionality, according to research
company iSuppli.
iSuppli analysts, in a report issued April 3, said as dynamic,
user-generated content becomes more commonplace on the Internet, the acceptance
of cloud computing will grow along with it.
To iSuppli, cloud computing describes an environment where applications and
services can be accessed via the Web from multiple devices—such as PCs, mobile phones and video game consoles—anywhere in the world.
However, despite the expected wide acceptance for cloud
computing, the future for cloud storage is less bright, iSuppli said.
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Cloud storage is attractive to small and midsize businesses as a way of
maintaining adequate storage capacity and backup, and also to businesspeople
who spend a lot of time on the road and need a way to share common files over
the Internet and work collaboratively with colleagues. However, there are
trends in the market that indicate that the demand for cloud storage may wane.
The recession is driving down the "available amount of excess capacity
in data centers that could be leased out for use as cloud storage,"
iSuppli analyst Krishna Chander said in a statement.
iSuppli analysts also said Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo are reportedly looking
to get out of the online storage market, though Google may move into it with
its GDrive technology.
Another trend is the proliferation of external hard drives that offer as
much as 2TB of capacity, sold through retailers at attractive prices.
iSuppli analysts said while the cloud storage market—which was at about $487
million in 2008—is expected to reach $5.8 billion in 2013, the possible
adoption of external storage devices could cut that projected amount in half.
iSuppli isn't the only one to see a bright future for cloud computing.
Research company IDC in March predicted that
IT spending worldwide on cloud computing services would reach $42 billion by
2012, given that it offers businesses that are aggressively searching for ways
to cut costs a cheaper way to acquire and use technology.
Vendors also are working to figure out how the trend toward cloud computing
will play out. In a blog post April 6, Alan Priestley, a strategic marketing
manager with Intel, cited a presentation by a SAP
official in February that speculated that cloud computing could evolve into a
model similar to the airline industry, based less on energy consumption and
more on how enterprises buy cloud services.
Priestley pointed to a presentation by Wolfgang Krips, vice president of SAP
Managed Services, at the VMware EMEA event, in which Krips pointed out that
airlines price tickets depending on factors such as routing and time of day,
offer a range of service levels, and sell tickets through different avenues,
including directly from airlines or through a portal.
In cloud computing environments, pricing may depend on SLAs (service-level
agreements), portals already are cropping up to act as brokers to sell capacity
and data centers may start selling off excess capacity at discounted rates.
"Definitely food for thought as to what the future of cloud computing
will bring and how IT might interact with the various providers on the market
place," Priestley wrote in his blog.
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