Public cloud on the rise

Cloud computing adoption in 2013 is expected to be widespread across industries and verticals. The primary adoption will be centered on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) while Software as a Service (SaaS) will gain momentum. Meanwhile, organizations will continue with virtual, public and private clouds. The pace of SaaS adoption will shoot up in the coming year. Companies will begin looking at data migration and data integration across cloud and non cloud environments. To sum it up, road ahead looks promising for cloud adoption.

Cloud adoption

In the near future, companies will implement a hybrid cloud strategy that puts select workloads in the public cloud and keeps others in-house. While hybrid cloud deployment is not a new concept, the adoption will become mainstream. Organizations will start incorporating cloud technology into their IT portfolios. There will be a more realistic idea in terms of understanding what fits in the cloud and what doesn't.

Trends

Major trends in the near future will be driven around increasing adoption of software as a service. Organizations will demand cloud functionalities and solutions for cloud and non cloud independently or collectively around identity and access management, single sign on and authentication.

IaaS providers will provide wider functionality addressing the needs of the platform beyond infrastructure. PaaS adoption has remained low and will tend to be so until organizations wake up to its potential. In SaaS, expect a lot of innovation with newer solutions coming into the play. Data management and integration, identity and access management depict high growth opportunity in the year ahead.

Cloud and jobs

The cloud job market is expected to create increasing buzz in the near future. The key trends include an expanding demand for cloud architects using private clouds; and niche architects with expertise in niche offerings like salesforce.com, amazon etc. driven by a growth in SaaS. With talent demand exceeding supply, the market from a job seekers perspective will continue to be satisfying. From an organization viewpoint, demand for functional consultants and architects is going to be high. Cloud will contribute to a resurgence of IT in the year ahead.

Market ratio

SaaS will see satisfying penetration rate irrespective of industry while IaaS and PaaS will see more horizontal play. Cloud consulting will be dominated by vertical play. In the near future, the industries that have typically remained averse to cloud will steadily start opening up- healthcare for instance. Media and retail are expected to fuel growth while the finance sector is keenly monitoring cloud for adoption.

Geographically, the US, Europe and APAC in that order, will witness greater adoption. According to the Forrester Report, half of all enterprises in North America and Europe are planning to create budgets for cloud related investments in 2013.

Bid data is being closely watched by the industry. Currently in the slow adoption phase, big data will be adopted as soon as its potential impact on investments is realized by companies. Momentum on this front could be witnessed in the latter half of 2013.

On a final note

2012 can be termed as the year of Private cloud- 2013 is going to be the year of Public cloud. The next year will be action packed with partnerships, acquisitions, healthy competition bringing out the best in the industry.