Cisco Systems Inc. stunned the technology world by announcing that it would start offering cloud computing services to its users. The company says it plans to spend an incredible $1 billion in the next two years in order to become a leader in the online market. Cisco plans on building data centers in order to help run the service, and they hope to rival Amazon, which currently leads the way with cloud offerings.
The Flexibility of Cloud
It’s been no secret that cloud computing has been a rising favorite for many businesses over the past decade, especially considering that it enables greater flexibility when it comes to using mobile devices — something that employees are increasingly likely to do. According to Reuters, a current trend in IT services is that companies are spending less and less on enterprise hardware — something Cisco and many other companies currently specialize in. There is “a fundamental migration to cloud computing” which is leading to a corresponding drop in the demand for hardware equipment.
Is Cloud Going Mainstream?
Is this going to be the year that cloud computing goes mainstream when it comes to IT solutions? It seems likely that this is either happening now, or on the rise to happen within the next several years. Enterprise Irregulars reports that 64% of CIOs are focusing on cloud computing solutions in order to support closer customer engagement and collaboration. Additional studies have shown that cloud computing is often entering through the backdoor of company technology — while in-house systems might still reign supreme, many business owners admit that there have been investments made throughout the company in enabling cloud technology to keep track of data and management solutions.
Google has been trying to edge itself into the cloud computing hype as well, recently dropping the price for its cloud-based storage platform, Drive. As cloud only becomes more popular as an IT support solution, we’re likely to see more big players up their game in order to bring competitive offerings to the millions of potential users out there.
A Word of Caution
On the dark edge of discussion about the future of cloud computing is threats to system security. The recent Target data breach, which resulted in an exposure of personal data for over 100 million consumers, occurred during normal data storage. “Cloud computing introduces significant new avenues of attack,” the Cloud Security Alliance has said. For this reason, businesses should work with cloud providers who emphasize the importance of safety, and who have a progressive approach to data security.
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