In a recent post, I focused on market research about the use of Cloud computing , notably the eager and stunningly widespread embrace of SaaS and PaaS .
This time, I want to take a look at another key Cloud computing trend— the rise of hybrid Cloud computing. The North Bridge Venture Partners’ 2012 report reinforces this:
These days, you can buy Cloud services from just about anyone.
Some of these providers do it all themselves, from initial needs assessment through design, integration, customization, and implementation all the way to post-deployment support. Even if they provide capabilities via reselling products and services from others, they have deep technical knowledge of what they’ve provided and can stand by it.
So as a customer, your chain of control is unbroken — when you want help or information about your service, you’ll get what you need.
A mobile workforce may sound great in principle , but I’ve heard plenty of concern from managers about how well an untethered workforce will really perform.
I haven’t seen anything in the way of a rigorous, real-world, before-and-after study that shows, one way or the other, whether mobility aids or detracts from workers’ productivity and effectiveness. Which means that for now anecdotal evidence will have to do.
Sleek new devices like the mini iPad and Windows Surface promise to add even more momentum to the already headlong rush into business mobility and BYOD that will, according to market researcher IDC , have more U.S. Internet users accessing the Internet through mobile devices by 2015 than through PCs or other wireline devices.
And it’s all made possible by Cloud computing infrastructure, without which business mobility would remain a hassled tangle of siloed applications, data, and communications services.
A recent issue of InformationWeek pooled data from an assortment of that publication’s own surveys to offer some insight into the current state of Cloud use by IT shops. We also get a few hints about both the degree and direction of Cloud momentum and its power as a disruptive technology :
11% of IT departments have a major Cloud implementation in place [Global CIO Survey, February 2012].
20% have a formal company policy to evaluate Cloud options for any new services or systems; 27% prefer to use the Cloud [Cloud ROI Survey, November 2011].
As 2012 begins to wind down, we at Quest are finding that interest in Cloud computing continues to wind up. Our experience is borne out by recent research , which indicates that the business drivers for Cloud computing haven’t shifted much. Here’s a chart from North Bridge Venture Partners’ 2012 report :
