You’ve probably heard too much about cloud, whereas some technology critics have written and talked about it, targeting cloud service providers and telling them to stop talking about cloud itself because they have heard enough of it.
You cannot blame these critics. The PRISM-gate scandal and outages of Google and other major cloud vendors fanned the flames of criticisms, and of course, consumers like them have the right to speak what’s in their minds.
While that’s true, the benefits of cloud offer opportunities of expansion and development for startups, midsized and large enterprises. They cannot be disregarded because the cloud has already become a part of our technological lives.
One cannot deny its usefulness. Some consumers have accepted the reality that whilst the cloud has its flaws that often lead to security breaches and outages, they still welcome a part of it in their personal and mercenarily intentions.
Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch said that “Forrester Research has now released its annual look at the state of IT spend globally, and the analysts project that there will be $2.06 trillion invested across software, hardware, and IT services by enterprises and governments in 2013.”
The statistics indicates that a portion of this trillion-dollar industry includes the acquisition of cloud services by enterprises and governments worldwide. In congruity to Gartner’s Research, the findings show that IT spending will hit $3.7 trillion dollars in 2013 globally.
“IT spend globally — from devices through to data center investments and the services that run on them — it set to reach $3.7 trillion in 2013, but that represents shrinking growth of only 2% on 2012, as more expensive items like PCs and on-premise software continue to get pushed out by less expensive, newer things like lower-cost tablets and cloud services,” said Ms Lunden of TechCrunch.
Now the question is can we really stop talking about a trillion-dollar industry?
Early cloud adopters and current users have the right to be heard on what they think about the cloud. They can validate the good, the bad and the ugly side of it.
Anyone who’s looking for substance and experiential knowledge on what the cloud can offer has the right to ask and validate as well. One of the reasons why critics and analysts cringe is that most cloud vendors love to carry the cloud label because they want to sell the services.
Frankly, this is inevitable. Cloud vendors have mercenarily objectives; whether to gain profit or provide valuable service, end-users must choose the latter. Rarely, you’ll find a cloud service provider who offers real value and scalability. It’s not because they said so, but because their clients had validated it. Also, end-users should partner with a cloud service provider who’d rather focus on what the service actually does, the value it provides and its benefits more than the competition.
The challenge for cloud vendors is to be customer centred and to show consistency in all the products and services.
With its utmost practicality, we can never stop talking about cloud because the pursuit and adoption of it sparks education, profit and efficiency for all its worth. Whether you’re against it or not, you have to live with it and make a room for it. Nonetheless, even critics have the freedom to banter and speak with outright frankness.
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Author: Alisa Martin is an expert on technology based articles. She regularly contributes on topics like cloud service providers to keep her readers updated on the latest advancements in technology
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