Research companyOvum predicted that cloud computing will need another five years to mature, see the emergence of a cloud ecosystem in 2013, and witness the monetization of data into a resource by vendors and enterprises in the next 12 months.
In the "2013 Trends to watch: Cloud computing" report, Ovum Software Senior Analyst Laurent Lachal said that cloud computing promises to tackles "two hitherto irreconcilable IT challenges:" the need to reduce costs and the need to boost innovation. He said, "It takes a lot of effort from vendors and enterprises to actually make it work, and they will succeed in making it work in 2013, both on their own and as part of increasingly complex ecosystems.
Despite cloud computing, in all its guises (public, private, and hybrid), is building momentum, evolving fast and becoming increasingly "enterprise-grade", it is early days for vendors and enterprises. "Cloud computing has barely reached the adolescence phase and it will take at least another five years for cloud computing to mature into adulthood," said Lachal.
Emergence of cloud ecosystem
Lachal predicted that 2013 will see the emergence of cloud computing ecosystem. Public clouds are increasingly approached not only as technology delivery platforms but also as "ecosystem hubs" for cloud service providers and consumers.
"They [The 'ecosystem hubs'] offer a new way to accelerate participation in the rapidly evolving social networking and mobile solution ecosystems of the internet age. Some industry sectors are benefiting from the "data center as a hub", an increasingly cloud computing-centric ecosystem of partners that assembles in a key location or data center such as around financial exchanges, web and online services, or media content," he explained.