2009 - The Year of Cloud Computing!

Yes, everyone is making this bold statement. In his article, David Fredh laid out the reasons quite well:

The technological hype has started already but the commercial breakthrough will come in 2009. Cloud computing is being driven by providers including Amazon, Google, HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. The potential of the hype maybe will be clearer with the fact that Amazon price for one GB in the cloud is only $0.150 at this moment. The next amazing web services are in the Cloud. Already now, we have services like Dropbox (file synchronization) and Mozy (providing unlimited backup for only 5$ a month). More of your data will move out on the internet. Many people already have all their mails in their gmail inbox instead of in their harddrive. The same will probably happen with documents, images and music. It’s convenient, but watch out.. .who owns your data?"

Al Tompkins actually listed a few of the bold statements:

"Fortune magazine said:

Software-as-a-service companies have long promoted themselves as more capital-efficient alternatives to installed software solutions. Instead of financing a big software purchase and installation, companies can "pay as they go" under the cloud services model.

"The capital crunch of 2009 will put a spotlight on the advantages of cloud computing: less risk, no capital expenditure, predictable operating expenses and fast results," predicted Salesforce's (CEO Marc) Benioff. "I believe that will translate into greater adoption for both cloud computing applications and platforms."

The Software Licensing Blog said:

Demian Entrekin, founder and Chief Technology Officer of Innotas, has written an Op Ed piece for SandHill entitled 10 Predictions for Software as a Service. In it he cites a Gartner study that predicts the $6.4 billion in SaaS sales for 2008 will grow to over $14.8 billion by 2012.

VMBlog said:

"This year cloud computing made the leap from an interesting proposition to a viable option for even the largest of enterprises. In 2009 it becomes mandatory," said Appirio co-founder, Narinder Singh. "Today's economic climate will force enterprises to pick technology winners and losers for their environment in order to cut costs, be more efficient and deliver business-relevant innovation. Cloud computing makes this seemingly impossible task a possibility -– much more so than traditional software. This is why we believe cloud computing will be counter cyclical, with SaaS and PaaS investment accelerating, and traditional software spending declining."

2009 will also be The Year of Security (again)!

Cloud computing will not soar in 2009 unless concerns around information security and privacy are succinctly answered with solutions that are transparent in their understanding and verifiable in their operations. While I clearly feel that these sort of technical solutions are already available, success in 2009 lies in educating those held responsible for operating and managing global information repositories and networks.

For the Federal government community, the onus is squarely on cloud computing vendors and solution providers to show the value of this technology and to prove that the available technical solutions meet and exceed Federal requirements and standards.