10 big changes in corporate attitudes towards cloud computing in the 2013

According to foreign media reports, as companies strengthen their use of cloud services, market research firm Forrester predicts how companies will change their applications for cloud platforms and services next year.

Forrester predicts that enterprise application cloud services will continue to grow, albeit with a small enterprise user base. Many businesses will start to apply private clouds. As cloud services and platform spending increase, the way businesses use this service will evolve. Forrester summed up the 10 big changes in corporate attitudes towards cloud computing next year.

1. Companies will really understand the cost of cloud computing

Institutions will begin to focus more on the cost of cloud computing in 2013. Clouds are not always cheap. The cloud will be cheaper if the organization follows the correct usage patterns. To get the best ROI from cloud services and platforms, organizations need to build the cost reporting model for their applications, monitor the resources they use, and adjust their deployment to achieve a cost-performance balance.

Good cost management will also promote the business Mix deployment, service selection and the negotiation of discounted plans. The chief financial Officer will recognise the opportunity to reduce the cost of cloud services in 2013, Forrester predicts.

2. Change the attitude towards cloud service level agreements

Organizations will realize that they'd better build the resilience they need in cloud-based applications rather than the platforms they run. This approach enables organizations to have more access to the performance, availability, and security they need.

When only one-tenth of applications deployed on one platform require quality assurance for service-level agreements, the cost negotiation of high-level service-level agreements should not focus on other aspects.

3. Developing enterprise applications in the public cloud will be allowed

The infrastructure and Operations (I&O) team will accept in-house developers using a common cloud platform to make applications. Allowing this development, rather than preventing it, will allow the infrastructure and operations teams to provide guidelines for the safe use of these platforms and to take appropriate regulatory measures.

4. The cloud will be heavily used for backup and disaster recovery

Data that was previously cheaply backed up to traditional disaster recovery storage will be cheaper and easier to back up through a cloud-based disaster recovery system. In a cloud-based disaster recovery system, virtual machine data is replicated to a multi-tenant cloud platform and can be recovered faster.

This may cost savings in part because the cloud based disaster recovery system will pay for use, without the need to invest in building a backup disaster recovery site.

5. Clouds are not necessarily low-end goods

Cloud services may be known for running low-cost commodity hardware. However, in 2013, the executive component will support the popularity of cloud services. Non-commodity hardware-supported services will grow as demand for specific-market cloud services grows and cloud vendors try to differentiate themselves.

This trend is now evident and many services are supported by high-end processors and solid-state drives.

6. Amazon Web services will face competition

Amazon Web services will face fierce competition in the cloud platform market in 2013. Amazon currently dominates the cloud platform market, accounting for 70% of the market's share.

Significant improvements to the Microsoft and Google platforms will challenge Amazon's Web services. By the end of 2013, at least three important OpenStack platform-based cloud services will build a strong position.

7. Enterprises will accept that not everything is a cloud of view

2013 will be the year when the idea of "everything will go into the cloud" disappears. It buyers will increasingly understand the strengths and weaknesses of cloud platforms and their differences from traditional virtual infrastructure and host environments. Companies should recruit in-house developers with hands-on experience with different platforms to help determine what the workload belongs to.

8. Cloud and move should be fused together

In the 2013, mobile applications to cloud-based services will be better integrated.

The already popular practice of connecting mobile applications to cloud-based background services can respond flexibly to the needs of mobile users. This approach also has the advantage of reducing the effort and risk of connecting this communication to the enterprise database.

9. Enterprises will recognize that virtualization is not a cloud

The enterprise infrastructure and operations sector will need to stop mistakenly treating virtualized environments as private clouds in 2013. These virtualized environments are not private clouds, as these environments rarely provide self-service, automated configuration, standardized services, or cost transparency to developers. They are virtually static virtual environments that enable workload consolidation, operational efficiencies, and rapid recovery.

In 2013, the infrastructure and operations team should acknowledge that both have their own place in the data center and don't confuse the two.

10. Developers will recognize that there is not so much difference in cloud development

According to Forrester's survey of cloud developers, most programming languages, frameworks, and development methods used in the enterprise can be used in the cloud. Well-trained developers have no excuse to say there is no productivity in the cloud.