By: Tim Young
The thing about hype is that, sooner or later, it's time to put-up or shut-up. That time, it seems, has come for the cloud.
Here in the U.S., the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has published its final, official definition of cloud computing, after 15 previous iterations. This "model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources" is more than just web-apps and off-site storage. It's a definition that characterizes a baseline for cloud computing against which agencies and potential cloud adopters can judge so-called "cloud" services.
By having this standard against which to measure services, according to NIST computer scientist Peter Mell, "They are more likely to reap the promised benefits of cloud—cost savings, energy savings, rapid deployment and customer empowerment."
And if major government bodies are getting hip to the cloud, given how quickly they are known to move, it must be ready for prime time. And that's certainly the hope of the online retailers, software firms, and CSPs that have entered the cloud fray.
One CSP that has hitched its wagon to the cloud in a particularly big way is Verizon. The telecom giant picked up Miami-based cloud provider Terremark International a year ago (for a cool $1.4 billion), and doubled-down on cloud with its acquisition of cloud software supplier CloudSwitch in August, 2011.
It's no surprise that Verizon has invested so much time, money, and energy in cloud services, given their expectations for the growth of the market in years to come. Key players in the company's cloud strategy, including then-president of the company's Terremark unit (and current Verizon Enterprise Solutions CMO) Kerry Bailey, told the press late last year that they expect the market for cloud computing services to grow from $10 billion to $150 billion by 2020. Bailey told Bloomberg that $90 billion of that growth should come over the next four years, making even Verizon's multi-billion dollar cloud gamble seem like a strong bet.
Other forecasts for cloud growth have been similarly optimistic. IDC recently predicted that cloud spending would balloon to $73 billion by 2015, with half of that spend coming from U.S.-based businesses. AMI Partners pegs cloud services spending by that same year at $49 billion for U.S. small and medium businesses, alone, which could mean even larger numbers globally and across all business types.
50 billion. A hundred billion. A zillion kajillion. I'm no market forecaster and the real numbers aren't really the point. The point is that the market is growing and cloud service providers stand to make a solid profit as it does.
Doubts Persist
However, even those bullish on the cloud realize that there are serious concerns on the part of potential cloud adopters that have hampered adoption to this point, and that haven't been fully answered.
A survey conducted last summer by security software giant Symantec asked 3,700 executives from 35 countries about their plans to move business-critical initiatives into a cloud environment, and the concerns that accompany such plans.
