Imagine sitting in a room full of technology company leaders in the year 2020, reflecting on the decade that just passed. What would they be saying about the progression of business technology in the 2010s? That’s the scenario the Software & Information Industry Association put forth to some of its members, which then distilled their responses into a new report.
There are several common threads running through the SIIA report, packed full with the views of 49 technology CEOs and VPs. All agree that cloud computing — converged with mobile and big data analytics — is the single biggest game-changer in this decade, both for technology providers and consumers.
Will the 2010s be remembered as the “Decade of the Cloud”? The decade is actually still young, so who knows? It was too early to predict in 1992 that the 1990s would become the decade of the Internet, or in 2002 that the 2000s would be the decade of social media. But the signs were all around of something big in the making during those times. And we see a new type of economy coming out of the economic hurricane that hit full-force in 2008-09.
“Looking back on this decade which started deep in a global recession, the importance of understanding the true financial picture of an operation became critical,” says John Herr, CEO of Adaptive Planning. “Companies of all sizes needed the ability to conduct more what-if analysis, get real-time analytics, and operate with greater agility than they had in growth times. With these economic conditions in mind, two important technological advancements, cloud computing and mobile, have gained leadership as the platform for managing a company…. These two powerful platforms are disrupting the technology landscape and will prove to be the single most impactful advancement over the next eight years.”
Other tech leaders see the convergence of information with cloud as the driving force that will define the 2010s. “I can remember hearing of the information economy as a kid and yet I think this will be the first decade where that phrase means something to everyone,” René Lacerte, CEO and founder at Bill.com. “At the core of the information revolution is the cloud. At the core of the cloud is shared data and it changes everything. It creates transparency across and between users and developers. Extending the shared data concept to the business world will allow businesses to grow faster. It improves collaboration with their employees, their accountants, their customers and their suppliers, all in real time and accessible from anywhere. By 2020, businesses and the world at large will be connected and doing things we never imagined.”
Mike Binko, president and CEO of kloudtrack, agrees, and sees cloud fueling a decade-long entrepreneurial boom. “In 2020, the generation growing up with social media, rampant texting and cloud computing will be the entrepreneurs and business leaders driving technology’s next great innovations…. If you are looking at the 10-year period between 2010 and 2020 and ask entrepreneurs, consumers, CxOs, investors as well as other business leaders across all major industry sectors, the answer will more likely be ‘the quick and pervasive advent of cloud computing’… From infrastructure, to mobility, to virtualization, to on-demand applications the true value of cloud is making its presence known throughout the entire IT ecosystem.”
Chris Cabrera, CEO of Xactly, also sees a transformative effect that is shaping the decade ahead. “When we look back on the ‘10s, it will be clear that the full embrace of cloud-based services has not only changed our businesses but our lives,” he says. “True cloud computing makes many mobile software innovations possible, changes what we expect from our business and personal tools, re-orders the way products are developed and alters the core of customer relationships…. Cloud platforms help make innovations stick by allowing entrepreneurs to stretch early investment dollars. Rather than wasting cash on expensive hardware, they can focus on developing better products with successful go-to market strategies.”
Jim Sheward, CEO of Fiberlink, adds that the transition to cloud will be like nothing the industry has seen before. “The shift to the cloud will have an even more profound impact on the industry than the shift from mainframe to client-server,” he relates. “We saw what happened to some mega-vendors during that transition. And as more clients move from PCs to mobile devices, an even larger set of opportunities will emerge for new companies to solve new challenges. Today, any mega-vendor who is not committed to a cloud strategy will probably not be a mega-vendor for much longer…. Companies now have a choice between server-based or cloud services for managing just about everything. The cloud will be the only long term, sustainable way to deliver IT.”
Some executives see a gradual move to the full-bore cloud model, via the hybrid route. For example, Rick Nucci, general manager with
Dell Boomi, sees a decade-long transitional phase with the hybrid cloud, which blends private and public cloud computing. Small companies, unencumbered by large systems investments, will make the complete shift to cloud fairly rapidly. Mid-market companies will move to the cloud in phases. Larger companies, on the other hand, “tend to take their on-premise applications, move them to a private cloud infrastructure, and de-commission some of the old infrastructure as a phase one…. The transition may take several years, but the hybrid cloud as transitional for moving to the cloud, as the full transition to the cloud, will yield the greatest ongoing value to the business.”
Bill McNee, president and founder of Saugatuck Technologies, agrees that hybrid “may be somewhat of a temporary thing…. Most IT and business executives expect that their hybridized environments will peak within the next two to four years, and then shift more and more toward a cloud-dominated model thereafter.”
Of course, the cloud will extend well beyond IT, as it reshapes the way business is conducted. “Cloud computing, and the Software-as-a-Service model, will prove the single most impactful technical advancement driving business growth today and for the foreseeable future,” says Audrey Spangenberg CEO of FPX. “The transformative power of the cloud is driving innovation virtually everywhere, but its most significant impact will come from bringing to bear the power of solutions previously only available through on-premise systems without the inherent expenses.”
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/05/30/decade-of-the-cloud-tech-leaders-say-its-working-out-that-way/?ss=cloud-computing
