Early adapters of Cloud Computing have essentially been start-ups and individual developers, but large enterprises are now crossing the chasm and adapting Cloud Computing.
Here are some trends in Enterprise adaptation of Cloud that I have observed while discussing and working with our enterprise customers at BlazeClan, helping them make the transition to Cloud. These are on field experiences and observations and not some analyst research.
Enterprise adaption of Cloud is increasing
Yes, this is happening and happening in a big way. All enterprises especially in the North American market are opening up to the idea of moving applications on cloud. The idea of cost savings, reduced maintenance over heads and instant availability is becoming too hard to resist for the CIOs.
Cloud Computing vendors have also started tailoring their offerings for large enterprises and large infrastructure companies have started offering cloud computing services, targeting their existing customer base.
Hybrid Clouds are on the rise
The misnomer ‘private cloud’ is starting to get accepted as a valid technology and there are companies offering orchestrate your IT infrastructure a la Cloud. This is giving rise to the Hybrid Cloud architecture where companies are using either public or private cloud as disaster recovery and business continuity option.
Security concerns are starting to fade away
Days when people used to think that their data would wash away the moment a cloud starts pouring are long gone.
The security concerns about cloud which were common partly due to the lack of understanding of Cloud and mainly due to the fear spread by large hardware companies to save their turf is starting to fade away, as companies have more knowledge about how cloud operates.
Most cloud vendors now have industry leading security credentials to showcase and this is helping in allaying fears about cloud computing for the enterprises.
Smaller vendors are feasting on the Enterprise pie
We at BlazeClan while servicing our customers are not competing with the large IT players but with young organizations like us, focused on delivering the best solutions without the overhead of a large organization.
Small but niche teams are no longer constrained by the requirement of having a diverse team with expertise in hardware management, infrastructure management etc. These teams are concentrating on what they do the best, churn out code/applications and let Cloud worry about infrastructure.
Enterprises are adding these small teams on their vendor list. It gives them many advantages like agility; low costs and access to teams which are focused and experts in their core area of offering.
Enterprises want to understand DevOps
For long DevOps (Development + Operations) has been a methodology best utilized by web startups working on their platforms and products. It is an extension to agile development methodology for rapid deployments with zero downtime achieved by extensive collaboration between software development and IT operations.
Enterprises love this idea of doing away with downtimes during releases and updates and are open to learn the new DevOps techniques. There are challenges, mainly change of mindsets before enterprises adapt this, but DevOps will definitely become a widely adapted methodology.
Cloud Computing is growing and these trends will change every few months. I will keep updating the trends that affect the industry and when they arise.