The Enterprise Cloud

Chapter 9. Industry Trends and the Future of Cloud Computing

Key topics in this chapter:

• Analysis of industry trends

• Evolution from IaaS to PaaS applications

• Convergence of IaaS and SaaS providers

• Trends leading from private to hybrid clouds

• The future of cloud computing:

  • Hybrid clouds and cloud brokering

  • Application transformation: fully multithreaded, multiprovider, dynamically scalable applications

  • Self-service administration: consolidated application control panels

  • Software-defined datacenters

  • Big Data and analytics

  • The Internet of Things

The cloud computing industry has matured quickly in its initial years, and certainly since the term “cloud” was first coined. As the pace of computers and information technology in general continues to accelerate. The cloud industry has clearly gone through its infancy and is in what I would call the adolescent stage. This book has focused on providing lessons learned during these early years, and now we look to the next generation of cloud computing.

In this chapter, I first discuss some important industry trends, some of which are lessons learned by cloud providers and early-adopter customers. Then I will discuss the technologies, trends, and forecasts for the next-generation clouds. By understanding these trends and technologies, you and your organization can improve your cloud transition, better comprehend the current cloud industry, and build a more flexible future-ready enterprise cloud.

An Analysis of Industry ...