Gartner: 5 Cloud Computing Trends to Watch Through 2015
Gartner pointed to five key emerging trends that users should figure into their cloud computing plans.
Overall, Gartner sees cloud computing as one of its top 10 strategic technology trends, but the analyst firm zeroed in on several key aspects of that trend:
Formal decision frameworks
Essentially, Gartner says companies shouldn’t dive into cloud computing blindly, and that means setting up frameworks for making decisions about cloud. Yes, cloud computing can bring lower costs, greater agility and reduced complexity, but companies need to factor in security, performance, availability, licensing constraints and integration needs.
Hybrid cloud computing
Enterprises are likely to use a blend of public and private clouds, an approach called hybrid cloud computing. Gartner says that over time, this could lead to a unified model, where an enterprise sees a single cloud, but behind the scenes are multiple cloud platforms that could be internal or external to the company. Naturally, this approach means that companies need to establish guidelines for how the internal and external systems will combine.
Cloud brokerages
A cloud services brokerage is a service provider that acts as an intermediary in cloud computing. That is, a company goes to the provider to help select and purchase a cloud computing solution. Gartner recommends that IT departments position themselves as cloud services brokerages for their companies. The rest of the enterprise should go to the IT department for their advice and recommendations for cloud services.
Cloud-centric design
Many companies are looking to migrate their systems to a cloud environment, but Gartner says it is time to start thinking in a cloud-first model. This way, the unique characteristics, limitations and opportunities of the cloud can be factored in from the start as companies look to create new systems or solutions.
Cloud in your data center
On a related note, the advent of cloud computing should influence how companies build their data centers. Granted, many enterprises will be letting a public cloud provider handle parts of their IT requirements. But for those that continue to build their own data centers as well, cloud considerations should be taken into account, so that enterprises can benefit from the agility and efficiency of cloud computing.
More information is available in the Gartner report "Five Cloud Computing Trends That Will Affect Your Cloud Strategy Through 2015."