Standardization of Cloud will be the Norm – CloudNOW 2013 Predictions

CloudNOW, a nonprofit worldwide association founded by Jocelyn DeGance Graham has given 2013 top predictions regarding cloud computing. CloudNOW is working for the overall professional development of women with a focus on using technology by providing forums and platform for networking, knowledge sharing, counseling, mentoring, and economic growth.

The forecasts were authored by CloudNOW members and advisors Lori MacVittie, Jocelyn DeGance Graham, Bernard Golden, and Margaret Dawson.

According to the report, the cloud 2013 predictions include a particular focus on the cloud federation, large use of cloud stack, and greater control over cloud services and resources through enterprise class characteristics.

The authors are of the view that a core focus of cloud in 2013 will be around such topics as big data and integration of cloud computing infrastructure and applications to realize federation of clouds. They said federated cloud models will start to become core to organizational cloud strategy. To put that model into practice requires standardization, and luckily there is no dearth of efforts on that front.

We will see a push toward the standardization of cloud because of it over the next year. As that process continues, providers will begin to differentiate through support, enterprise-class features such as more appropriate SLAs, geolocation services to assist in meeting regulatory and compliance needs, and baked-in social collaboration features. As organizations adopt cloud next year with growing alacrity, the generation of data across federated cloud formations will drive innovation and offer providers an additional path to monetization through big data analytics and services, says Jason Seats, Managing Director at technology accelerator startup for cloud providers, TechStars Cloud.

Cloud will grow despite security concerns

CloudNOW report says cloud computing adoption will continue to grow despite cloud security and availability concerns. Developers, application groups, and end user business units will increase their adoption of public cloud computing, especially via Amazon Web Services, due to fact that businesses are still using time-consuming manual processes for internal private clouds.

IT will regain control over cloud

In 2013, IT will regain some control on clearly defined centralized policy and governance by implementing clear, proper security policies for cloud computing usage on mobile devices. There will be increased collaboration around the cloud between IT and business leaders with clear policies on IT security and business agility needs.

Cloudonomics ecosystem

The reporters say cloud will evolve from a one-to-one relationship to a one-to-many ecosystem, where cloud providers, cloud insurers, broker services, and other cloud organizations will enjoy operational and financial benefits of cloud.

Gartner recently presented top 10 strategic trends in IT for 2013, where private cloud, hybrid IT, Internet of Things and integrated ecosystem will have major impact on the corporate market in the next three years.