As readers of this blog know I am a fan of Google Alerts. Over the last several weeks I have seen a flurry of press releases and articles delivered via my daily Google Alert on cloud computing. As usual, in today’s Google Alert there were several companies with lots vowels in their names launching new products, today’s examples include Courion and Kualo. Additionally, today’s Google Alert contained an unusual concentration of companies I didn’t expect to see in the cloud and they helped me realize three emerging cloud trends.
The first press release was titled “Major Contract for Global Cloud Computing: Philips to Rely on IT Technology from T-Systems” http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/major-contract-for-global-cloud-computing-philips-to-rely-on-it-technology-from-t-systems-78679812.html. This is the first I have seen of T-Systems in the cloud, but I am sure it won’t be the last. This highlights the first major trend for the cloud in 2010 – large established IT companies will announce new cloud offerings at a dizzying pace. At some point every major outsourcer from Accenture to Xerox will join the cloud crowd. Some will develop products and some will acquire existing cloud companies.
Next, I saw a Computer World article about Novell and their product for Identify Management in the cloud http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141830/Novell_vows_first_identity_management_for_cloud_virtualized_apps?taxonomyId=145 . You remember Novell, the makers of NetWare, Groupwise and more recently the purveyors of SCO. This typifies the second major trend for the cloud for 2010 – Any technology product that can be cloud-enabled will be cloud-enabled.
Finally, there was an item in the Cloud Computing Journal about CA hiring a lot of cloud computing and virtualization staff http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1207235 (you got a love it when you’re a large enough company, that simply placing a want ad gets someone to write a story about you). This is the final trend, cloud expertise is hot and there is imbalance of supply and demand, cloud consulting is going to be big. This will include everything from platform selection, to rewriting code so that target applications will work on a client’s cloud of choice.
