Every new technological breakthrough and process improvement causes a chain reaction. The move to the cloud created a cycle that is constantly changing the way the world does business.
The cloud will get bigger.
The amount of data being stored in the cloud is increasing exponentially. “A single cross-country flight of just one 737 can already generate 240 terabytes of data,” says jscape. Not only is there more data being generated every second, but the size of the files is increasing, as well. In healthcare, for example, digital imaging is replacing traditional x-rays and ultrasound videos. As digital methods continue to usurp analog, the size of the amount of data produced will only increase.
So the cloud will get cheaper.
The sheer amount of data being generated has created a healthy marketplace for online hosting services. Not only are giants like Savvis and SAP playing, there are now a growing number of providers catering to businesses with less demanding needs. There is plenty of cloud customer pie to share, and there will only be more in the future.
So more businesses will move to the cloud.
Due to competition, the cost of cloud hosting has greatly decreased in the past couple years. Now most small and medium-sized businesses are saving budget by outsourcing email servers and storing files. This also sets them up for disaster recovery and remote employees.
So the cloud will get faster.
Cloud hosting providers are rapidly building data centers and upgrading to faster servers in an effort to keep up with demand, increase redundancy, and differentiate themselves from competitors. This need is driving engineers to create even faster servers.
So developers and marketers will innovate.
The faster the cloud, the more you can do with it. There are current cloud applications that would not have been possible two years ago, and the trend will continue. Marketers are already using geo-location from mobile devices to deliver real-time offers to shoppers as they stand in front of a product. Who knows what wild application they will dream up next?
All this just means the cloud is going to get even bigger.
Updated from 12/19/13.
