9 Cloud Computing Forecasts For 2015

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Forrester Research predicts key trends across private cloud, hybrid clouds, and public clouds.

According to Cloudtech, Forrester Research released Predictions 2015: The Days of Fighting the Cloud Are Over, a report in which they forecast the top ten trends for next year. The biggest takeaway from the report, according to ZDNET, is that cloud computing is a disruptive technology and therefore any resistance to its power is futile.

“The landscape for cloud computing changes quickly, so your business technology agenda must adapt just as rapidly,” the report states. “Your business will earn an early mover advantage by keeping ahead of these changes.”

ZDNET summarizes the report’s key points as follows:

• For Microsoft, cloud will trump on-premises. Forrester predicts that soon Microsoft’s cloud revenues could exceed traditional on premise sales of Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, and more. It is platforms like Azure and office 365 that will make that possible. And, thanks to CEO Satya Nadella’s cloud-first strategy, Microsoft could be set to generate more of its revenue from its cloud services than its traditional on-premises applications, Forrester says.
• Cloud APIs Tie Everything Together. So-called REST interfaces and API (application programming interface) management solutions will help developers and IT departments to integrate multiple cloud and on-premises services, according to Forrester.
• Cloud data breaches are inevitable. Forrester says that CIOs should expect to encounter a breach in the cloud, and fault will lie with the organizations, not the SaaS provider. “The culprits will likely be common process and governance failures such as poor key management or lack of training or perimeter-based thinking by your security department,” the report states. “A breach of some form is inevitable.”
• Docker containers will make their mark on the cloud. Docker, the open source container technology, will allow customers to more easily build, move and manage applications on the cloud. Most of the major public cloud providers now support Docker -- or plan to do so by early 2015. Forrester says, “Docker is not a fad. It marks a new approach that delivers real benefits, and it is here to stay.”
• Hybrid cloud management will come into its own. Forrester says that in 2015, enterprises will start to figure out how to use the growing portfolio of available tools to expose private cloud resources to their developers, potentially creating a single dashboard for all of your cloud systems.
• Managed private clouds are a dying breed. Forrester concludes that the on premise, remotely managed private cloud is a doomed model, since aside from not offering enterprises any lasting value; it poses far more challenges than potential benefits.
• SaaS will branch out into Vertical Markets. Companies like Saleforce.com and WorkDay will stretch beyond their horizontal roots (CRM, HR, etc.) and start to introduce vertical market extensions for manufacturing, health care, financial services and more, in an effort to better appeal to enterprise customers, Forrester says.
• SaaS vendors tiptoe toward hybrid. Forrester expects to see SaaS vendors that focus on public-only multi-tenant deployments to begin offering a more hybrid model that includes some on premise implementations.
• Cloud storage pricing wars could be fatal. Forrester concludes that basic online backup is not a sustainable business when fronted on its own. “In 2015, enterprise online backup providers must either make the leap to disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) and provide workload availability in addition to data protection or prepare to suffer a similar fate to Symantec Backup Exec cloud.”