Up In The Cloud In 2014

Jacob Soto works with PC Connection

The number of small businesses, companies and large-scale corporations who adopted cloud computing practices in 2013 was at about 60%.  This is a drastic increase from Intel's 2012 study of 200 IT professionals of who only 18% were actively using cloud based services.  

As we flip a page and get ready for 2014 there is a lot we can expect to change.  Cloud services in 2014 are set to grow even further beyond what they are now.  From its infrastructure to the software here are five things to keep your eye on in 2014.

1. The Proliferance of the Industrial Internet

The "Industrial Internet" is more easily thought of as the coming together of data and analytics.  Actualized data that make a variety of industries more efficient, streamlined and in the end, more user friendly.  In 2014 this sector of the internet is set to take off in a big way.  Cloud computing is ready to transform this niche of the internet.  With it's remote data management capabilties it's only a matter of time before the next generation of intelligent, software-defined machines make their way across the net.

2.The Death of Public and Provate Clouds

One of the biggest challenges that cloud based technologies have faces over the last couple years has been the deabtes of public versus private cloud architecture.  As technology improves and new innovations are made, the notion of the "hybrid" cloud becomes more of a reality. 

Users can expect the top-notch security of a private cloud with the power and scalability of the public cloud.  What this means for the business bottom line is smiles on the security side and grins on the big-business end.

3. BYOD Becomes the Standard Not the Exception

The BYOD buzzword has been floating around the business world for a few years now but it wasnt until about second quarter 2013 where it seemed that every news site on the internet had some rehash of the same idea.  "Is BYOD the future?", or my favorite, "The Security Risks of BYOD".

The truth of the matter is that BYOD is unavoidable.  As we push headlong into the future it will become even more of a reality.  As more and more personal devices are used for this sort of thing the need for increased cloud based technologies will continue to rise.  Keep an eye out for more emphasis on the personal in these big corporation cloud-based environments. 

4. Increased Graphical Technolofgies

If you have even remotely been paying attention to the explosion of graphical technologies that has been happening in the gaming industry you can expext a little bit of that to be tricking over to the general public via big grpahic names like AMD and Nvidia.

No longer will impressive graphics be exclusive to consoles and computer based gaming, instead, expect to see much of these innovations make their way over to the web running on nothing but HTML5.  How will all this be done?  Look no further than cloud hosting.

5. New Security Woes

As with all new innovations in technology comes an entirely new set of security woes.  In 2014 you can bet on seeing a host of new security policies hitting corporate America.  One of the big ones is going to have to be identity management.  As more companies begin to adopt cloud based services  IT environments inevitbly become more complex.  How this will work and what this will look like remains to be seen. 

Have any other ideas about what is to come?  I'd love to hear from you.