Brief Review of Cloud Trends in 2016 and Beyond

Cloud trends include¹:

• Options – Switching Public Cloud platforms and Private Cloud compliance
• Familiarity – Greater understanding leads to refinement in selections
• Growth – Cloud tends to be the primary engine for IT growth
• Benefits – Reduction in costs leads all other benefits

Options

Approximately 43% of companies using Public Cloud services that were surveyed in CompTIA’s Trends in Cloud Computing² switched to a different Public Cloud platform (i.e.: from Google G Suite to Microsoft Office 365). Of these, 46% noted that this secondary migration was more difficult than the initial migration to the Cloud.

The top Public Cloud implementations – email, web presence, and business productivity suites – were used by 51%, 46%, and 45% of the survey respondents, respectively.

Familiarity

Most Cloud-using organizations have a one-to-five year history with Cloud services; they have been through the process before, which simplifies the selection and procurement of new options.

Cloud options, Public, Private, and Hybrid, also are better understood, leading to greater refinement in the cloud-selection process. However, Private Cloud is likely the least-understood option, often being used to refer to a hosted datacenter solution, which is becoming the norm.

Growth

The Gartner Group forecast Cloud revenues of $204B in 2016, a 16.5% growth over 2015.³ Gartner’s 2017 forecast is continued, double-digit growth of 17.3%.

Benefits

Of the CompTIA respondents, over 40% of all organization types – large, medium, and small – cite “Ability to cut costs” as the primary motivation in Cloud computing. Small and medium organizations were also likely to emphasize “Reduce capital expenditures” as a primary motivator.

¹Please see ClikCloud Technology Trends for 2017.

²See CompTIA Trends in Cloud Computing from September 2016.

³Visit Gartner Group Gartner says Worldwide Public Cloud Services Market Forecast to reach $204B in 2016 from January 25, 2016.