DCK Cloud Predictions for 2013

Excerpts from the 2013 prediction article titled “The Cloudy Horizon for 2013: 10 Predictions” by Jason Verge in Data Center Knowledge.

The full article is available on the Data Center Knowledge website.

Emphasis in red added by me.

Brian Wood, VP Marketing

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The Cloudy Horizon for 2013: 10 Predictions

What’s ahead in cloud computing for 2013?

1. Cloud Will Blur Boundaries of Facilities and Operations

Many data center services providers have entered the cloud arena. Cloud is a complimentary offering to colocation. There will remain straight colo plays, but those with a heavily regional focus will add cloud to the portfolio, if they haven’t already. A lot of companies are recognizing that cloud is an integral piece in a larger strategy, so they’ll seek service providers that can provide cloud in addition to colo space or dedicated hosting.

2. It’s All About Hybrid Cloud and Multiple Clouds

There were a lot more “mixed” deals in 2012. In 2013, Customers will get smarter about what should reside in the cloud and what shouldn’t, as well as use cloud more effectively for things like bursting during known periods of traffic spikes. They’ll also leverage multiple clouds more effectively. Cloud management specialist Rightscale said that 87% of its compute under management is multi-cloud usage, one data point suggesting an increasing percentage of users using multiple clouds.

3. Cloud Brokerages

4. Cloud Will Support Big Data

Two of the major trends intersect. There will be an “increased focus on big data and solution-oriented delivery,” said Duke Skarda, CTO of Softlayer.

John Engates, CTO of Rackspace believes “this is the year when Big Data makes its way into enterprise conversations.”

Cloud has made the economics of working with big data reasonable and accessible to a wider audience. It’s no longer just the biggest corporations that can hope to leverage big data to make their businesses more efficient. Because the capex costs that made big data cost prohibitive are gone, more businesses are now able to effectively leverage big data.”

5. Community Clouds Target Industry Verticals

While the giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) will focus on providing commodity cloud, more traditional service providers getting into cloud will target specific verticals or needs in order to differentiate. This has been dubbed “community cloud” by a variety of sources.

One of the biggest needs is compliance and security requirements for a given vertical, meaning you’ll start to see a lot of specific vertical-targeted clouds like “healthcare cloud” or “legal cloud”. By grouping like-minded and similar needs, these community clouds will be able to leverage the economies of public with the specific needs of a private cloud.

6. 2013: The Year of Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

“Demand for DR as a service in the cloud has not waned,” says Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata. “In fact, there has been more business and enterprise adoption of cloud DRaaS requiring no dedicated infrastructure — though buyers should beware of dedicated hosted DR parading as cloud DR.”

Rackspace’s Engates believes recent natural disasters will kick cloud DR into high gear. “The cloud will help these companies respond more quickly,” said Engates in his predictions. “The frictionless nature of moving workloads between clouds in the face of a disaster is huge, as it gives companies the flexibility they need to adapt. The cloud will be a key component of disaster recovery plans moving forward.”