Increased Data Management Leads to Cloud Expansion

Although some skeptics may still not be completely sold on the cloud, an increasing number of information technology departments are adopting this solution – and fast.With more and more IT teams implementing cloud computing capabilities throughout their operations, these systems are rapidly gaining steam. According to research carried out by Cisco, the sheer size of the cloud is expected to grow to 7.7 zettabytes over the course of the next 5 years. Additionally. experts anticipate that the volume of traffic on these third-party systems will almost triple during that same time period.While these figures are impressive, they are anything but shocking, especially given the mass adoption of cloud technology that has been occurring recently. As institutions begin to recognize the appealing potential in these sophisticated solutions, a growing number of organizations have been applying them within their company so that they can improve the way they complete all of their business functions.The Cisco study determined that if this pattern persists, there could be approximately two-thirds of all operations carried out on the cloud by 2017. This is due to more IT teams utilizing these programs to do nearly everything, ranging from housing their data to performing analytics. As they use cloud-based applications in more ways and for a bigger bulk of their information, external servers are expected to expand to unsurpassable proportions.All hail the cloudUndoubtedly, cloud computing offers a generous share of benefits to businesses. With increased efficiency and flexibility, in addition to lower operating costs, this form of outsourced infrastructure is ideal for companies in many ways.”Digital interactions are becoming essential for all kinds of business and social activities, and customer expectations have changed,” Gerardo Dada, senior director of product marketing at Rackspace, explained to CIO.com. “Companies are realizing it’s more efficient and more cost effective to allow a specialist hosting/cloud service provider to run their high-bandwidth, complex, global Web properties than trying to figure things out on their own.”That said, the news source pointed out that this advanced tool may also present chief information officers with an opportunity to solve some of the most common challenges plaguing their IT departments.Big data calls for bigger IT solutionsGenerally speaking, big data is far outgrowing its name. At this point, there are so many organizations tapping into this technology that it is bordering on enormous. Between compiling data, storing it, sharing it and analyzing it, corporate tech professionals may now find that they are up to their ears in files and raw information. As a result, keeping up with big data demands could be taxing on IT departments and cause them to dedicate a significant percentage of their resources to managing everything.IT executives are going to have to keep track of all of the information their companies care to manipulate in the interest of improving their business functions. CIO.com explained that this could pose some major difficulties, namely due to the higher volume of data that organizations are attempting to take on. For this reason, cloud-based solutions may give tech professionals’ their best shot at effectively managing as much information they could ever want or need.Conventional in-house infrastructure is simply incapable of handling the amount of data that modern IT departments ask of it. As more information is collected at a regular and rapid rate, the more inundated traditional tech systems will become. The news source stated that outdated hardware just won’t cut it anymore, unable to undergo all of the necessary updates at a fast enough pace – unlike cloud computing tools. In the end, programs of the past will be trumped in terms of efficiency by those presented by third-party servers, making the cloud more appealing to CIOs.Don’t go too cloud crazyAs IT professionals start to incorporate the cloud into their operations, they should be careful to keep tabs on their overall tech budgets. ComputerWeekly reported that while external data storage centers and analytics applications can be cost-efficient, CIOs can sometimes place too much value in these severs.The news source estimates that companies can tack on an additional 40 percent to their IT bills by implementing cloud computing capabilities. Although many IT executives maintain that increased investments in these tools will benefit their businesses in the long run, they should be sure to save some space for advancement in their spending plans. If there is no room for adopting other innovations further down the road, then companies may regret their overzealous investing in the cloud.