Cloud computing has been growing in popularity for the last few years as companies realize it’s more efficient than a traditional IT infrastructure. The cloud facilitates data security, mobile accessibility and business continuity. But what’s next for cloud computing and what should you look for in a cloud company in 2012?
Faster Disaster Recovery
In the past companies have had to use off-site data back-up to recover from disasters. With a cloud system, companies will be back up and running in a matter of hours after a disaster strikes, as all their data is already stored and accessed off-site.
More Cloud Based Applications
As bandwidth becomes less expensive and cloud computing more widespread, a greater range of cloud applications will become available. As the market grows, more and more specialised software will become accessible via the cloud, helping reduce software costs for cloud-based companies.
Better Storage Optimization
Since cloud services are often billed by the amount of data storage required, better data compression techniques mean cheaper cloud services. More efficient data size reduction techniques promise to help squeeze your company’s data into the smallest space possible.
Cloud-based analytics
Many companies rely on analytics to build occasional reports, but only use it part of the year. Cloud companies could start offering analytics data on a report-by-report basis, instead of charging a month by month fee. Companies who leave their analytics idle for long stretches could realize huge savings by paying on a use by use basis.
Shrinking On-Site IT departments
On-site IT departments will shrink as IT support becomes more centralized inside the cloud. Fewer locally run applications means fewer IT personnel are needed to support their use. On-site IT support staff will be limited to hardware and network infrastructure support.
Whatever your companies IT requirements, there is a cloud-based solution to make your IT infrastructure cheaper and more efficient to run. 2012 looks like it will be the strongest year for cloud computing yet.
