Cloud computing set to expand as storage demand surges
May 30, 2012
If there’s one sector of technology whose future is not up in the air, it’s cloud computing.
In fact, the most recent figures suggest that this particular sector of the technology industry is going to continue to grow, providing not only cost-effective services to businesses but jobs to those in search of employment.
According to research from analyst firm IDC, public and private spending in cloud computing will increase exponentially over the next few years, boosting worldwide jobs by around 14 million…
John Gantz, senior vice president at IDC, noted that cloud services provide a number of advantages to businesses which can significantly improve their revenues.
"Enterprises that embrace cloud computing reduce the amount of IT time and budget devoted to legacy systems and routine upgrades, which then increases the time and budget they have for more innovative project," he said.
This was echoed by Paul Putman, managing director of mobile marketing company Dynmark, who noted that the essence of cloud computing is that it is a cost-effective data and infrastructure solution.
Companies can avoid hefty operational costs and pay only for what they consume and when, which is particularly useful to new firms and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) who need to minimise start-up expenses as much as possible.
Economic issues are however not the only reason for firms to take on cloud services. Increasingly, worries about data security are being alleviated as the technology evolves.
The more cloud computing companies can reassure users that their information will be safe and secure in the cloud, the more popular it is likely to be.
Although there is occasionally the misconception that it is not a secure method of storage, cloud services can actually help to protect company data.
For one thing, having information stored in the cloud means that it is effectively backed up remotely, and therefore not solely dependent on a physical storage device which may be lost or stolen.
Secondly, successful cloud providers themselves have the expertise and know-how to provide security solutions that the firm itself might not otherwise have access to.
The question is what is next for the cloud?
According to some experts, there is an increasing demand for on-the-move consumer cloud access, particularly as mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets become more popular.
Technology analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner said: "We see the cloud as the next wave of personal computing, augmenting or even eclipsing the personal computer.
"These cloud services are going to be the reason a lot of people use a device," he added.
Gartner recently released a study which estimated that household data storage requirements will reach 4.4 tetrabytes by 2016, around seven times the levels recorded in 2011.
Google, Microsoft and Apple are keen to meet this consumer demand with their own cloud services that allow people to sync devices between their mobile and desktop devices.
Apple’s iCloud is by far the most popular, with around 125 million subscribers.
It remains to be seen how cost-efficient such cloud services will stay.
At the moment, firms such as Dropbox offer a certain amount of free storage and only a small percentage of users become paid subscribers, but it’s difficult to predict how these options will develop in the future.