Hybrid clouds and personal clouds will see significant growth in the next 12 months, said Verizon Enterprise Solutions in its top business-technology trends for 2013.
According to Verizon, the new year will see greater adoption of advanced technology to meet changing demands of enterprises while increasing productivity and creating new experiences for customers.
"Next year, we are continuing to sharpen our focus on harnessing the power of our advanced technology platforms to deliver industry-specific solutions that unlock productivity and value for our clients, their customers and society," said David Small, senior vice president and chief platform officer for Verizon Enterprise Solutions.
Trend 1: From VPNs to hybrid clouds
Distributed data centers and the intelligent wired and mobile networks that connect them now represent a viable alternative to traditional virtual private network (VPN) methods, which have long formed the backbone of distributed enterprise communications for a generation, said Verizon. Next year, there will be a significant shift from VPNs to public, private and, importantly, hybrid clouds. According to aGartner report, More than 60% of all enterprises will have adopted some form of cloud computing by 2013.
"To keep up with the changing demands of today's enterprise, the ideal platform needs to be secure and easy to use and configure," said Small. "In 2013, if you can't switch workloads between public and private clouds, you won't be competitive. This next year will require a bold approach to embracing change and re-engineering networks in support of cloud-based applications."
Examples of recent cloud advancements include healthcare clouds that help the healthcare industry address the privacy requirements under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); clouds that help retail and other business transactions comply withPayment Card Industry standards; and clouds that help the public sector comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act.