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My five cloud computing, mobile and big data predictions for 2013 and one wish

This year I actually didn’t want to participate in any speculation. But a request from Cloud Expo’s Jeremy Geelan I could not reject and have written down my own personal predictions for the cloud computing, mobile and big data market for 2013. Of course I would like to publish them here as well and also have a personal wish.

1. Big data is the new oil

We saw an enormous growth of the Big Data market incl. new solutions helping analyzing this amount of information in 2012. This will, of course, keep moving in 2013. The company who is collecting the most high-quality data, making the best analysis on it and therefore get the best high-quality results out of it place themselve in the best position on the market.

But at the end of the day we should not forget the users in this equation. Today we talk about backend systems when we mean Big Data. But we forget that we as the users are impacted too. Because of the variety of social networks, e-mail and other online and offline applications we are faced with a data (information) overload that needs to be managed to help us organizing IT respectively our lives more convenient.

2. Mobile cloud becomes more important

Actually this so called mobile cloud exists for a lot of years. Because cloud computing is the backbone of the mobile world. On a closer view it is clear that cloud computing is a guarantee of success for the mobile technology market and offers. The cloud allows providers to deliver their customers the (for them actually-bringing added value) content such as books, music, apps, etc. anywhere and across devices. Smartphones, tablets and other new upcoming mobile devices in 2013 will emphasize this trend. Especially the potential of Africa and their growing mobile market will make the mobile cloud one of the important approaches we will see in the future.

3. Mobile big data

As a result of the growing mobile market in emerging nations besides the mobile cloud, big data is becoming more important for companies to reach new customers all over the world and especially in emerging nations. They need to understand their behavior on using technologies, services in the internet and how they are consuming things. This will have a big impact for both sides the old market and new markets which will grew up and even for the new customers.

4. Hybrid cloud is the new deal

Let’s face it. The public cloud is the real cloud! But because of worries due to data privacy and data security plus new laws that give governments new rights looking into cloud data, more and more companies plan their private cloud strategy. That is not to say the public cloud is dead. We will see new services on the public cloud and even enterprises will use it for bursting out. But at the end of the day the hybrid cloud is the new deal. Enterprises need to classify their data before going to the cloud. So, sensitive data will stay in the private cloud respectively in the “just” virtualized data center and usually data like things for marketing activities or other not so important things will go in the public cloud. Of course they need a connection and a secure combination of both private and public cloud for this bursting opportunities, the hybrid cloud.

5. Hybrid tablets go for business

Tablets help us to use IT, the internet and other things more comfortable. But they are actually not designed for an entire business use. For example on conferences and travels you always see people with a tablet plus an additional bought keyboard. Hybrid tablets are the best of both worlds, the tablets with their touchscreens and a convenient user interfaces plus classical laptops and their keyboards. Writing a lot of text on a tablet with the virtual keyboard is no fun what business users confirmed. Furthermore will hybrid tablets displace the ordinary laptops we use today.

My wish for 2013

My wish to each cloud computing vendor for 2013: Stop your nebulous marketing phrases and offer stable and value added cloud services.

By Rene Buest

Rene Buest is Gartner Analyst covering Infrastructure Services & Digital Operations. Prior to that he was Director of Technology Research at Arago, Senior Analyst and Cloud Practice Lead at Crisp Research, Principal Analyst at New Age Disruption and member of the worldwide Gigaom Research Analyst Network. Rene is considered as top cloud computing analyst in Germany and one of the worldwide top analysts in this area. In addition, he is one of the world’s top cloud computing influencers and belongs to the top 100 cloud computing experts on Twitter and Google+. Since the mid-90s he is focused on the strategic use of information technology in businesses and the IT impact on our society as well as disruptive technologies.

Rene Buest is the author of numerous professional technology articles. He regularly writes for well-known IT publications like Computerwoche, CIO Magazin, LANline as well as Silicon.de and is cited in German and international media – including New York Times, Forbes Magazin, Handelsblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Wirtschaftswoche, Computerwoche, CIO, Manager Magazin and Harvard Business Manager. Furthermore Rene Buest is speaker and participant of experts rounds. He is founder of CloudUser.de and writes about cloud computing, IT infrastructure, technologies, management and strategies. He holds a diploma in computer engineering from the Hochschule Bremen (Dipl.-Informatiker (FH)) as well as a M.Sc. in IT-Management and Information Systems from the FHDW Paderborn.

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