Crystal Ball for Cloud in 2010

Cloudy Crystal BallDo you see the cloud in your 2010 crystal ball?

It’s always fun to see what others predict will happen.

The more controversial you are, the better….who wants to just hear about “the growth of the market” anyway. So here we go….2010.

Appirio looks deep into their crystal ball here with the following:

  1. Cloud developer community grows faster than open-source.
  2. Cloud standards won’t (and shouldn’t) happen.
  3. Cloud providers tackle lock-in.
  4. Cloud integration will get an enterprise poster-child.
  5. Enterprise apps get Googled.
  6. Enterprise collaboration is a feature, not a business.
  7. Microsoft lets Azure cannibalize a global account.
  8. Cloud computing consolidation.
  9. Global Systems Integrators will do nothing more than cloud marketing.
  10. The real innovation will be in the business of cloud computing, not the technology.

Web 20 Journal uses the powers of the supernatural to predict the following here:

  1. Cloud Reduces the Effect of the Recession
  2. Broader Depth of Clouds
  3. VC’s, Money & Long Term Viability
  4. Partnerships Galore & Weeding Out of Providers
  5. Hybrid Solutions
  6. Web 3.0
  7. Standards and Interoperability
  8. Staggered Growth within the Cloud
  9. Technology Advances at the Cloud Molecular Level
  10. Larger Adoption

You can hear the chants from IDC’s conference rooms here:

  1. Growth will return to the IT industry in 2010. We predict 3.2% growth for the year, returning the industry to 2008 spending levels of about $1.5 trillion.
  2. 2010 will also see improved growth and stability in the worldwide telecommunications market, with worldwide spending predicted to increase 3%.
  3. Emerging markets will lead the IT recovery, with BRIC countries growing 8–13%.
  4. Cloud computing will expand and mature as we see a strategic battle for cloud platform leadership, new public cloud hot spots, private cloud offerings, cloud appliances, and offerings that bridge public and private clouds.
  5. It will be a watershed year in the ascension of mobile devices as strategic platforms for commercial and enterprise developers as over 1 billion access the Internet, iPhone apps triple, Android apps quintuple, and Apple’s “iPad” arrives.
  6. Public networks — more important than ever — will continue their aggressive evolution to fiber and 3G and 4G wireless. 4G will be overhyped, more wireless networks will become “invisible,” and the FCC will regulate over-the-top VoIP.
  7. Business applications will undergo a fundamental transformation — fusing business applications with social/collaboration software and analytics into a new generation of “socialytic” apps, challenging current market leaders.
  8. Rising energy costs and pressure from the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will make sustainability a source of renewed opportunity for the IT industry in 2010.
  9. Other industries will come out of the recession with a transformation agenda and look to IT as an increasingly important lever for these initiatives. Smart meters and electronic medical records will hit important adoption levels.
  10. The IT industry’s transformations will drive a frenetic pace of M&A activity.

The visions of David Linthicum at InfoWorld here:

  1. Rise of cloud computing standards
  2. First major cloud computing provider outages
  3. Microsoft will be relevant in the cloud
  4. Rapid consolidation of existing providers
  5. Rapid rise of cloud computing startups

So tempting to add your own isn’t it?

Jim Kaskade

Jim Kaskade is a serial entrepreneur & enterprise software executive of over 36 years. He is the CEO of Conversica, a leader in Augmented Workforce solutions that help clients attract, acquire, and grow end-customers. He most recently successfully exited a PE-backed SaaS company, Janrain, in the digital identity security space. Prior to identity, he led a digital application business of over 7,000 people ($1B). Prior to that he led a big data & analytics business of over 1,000 ($250M). He was the CEO of a Big Data Cloud company ($50M); was an EIR at PARC (the Bell Labs of Silicon Valley) which resulted in a spinout of an AML AI company; led two separate private cloud software startups; founded of one of the most advanced digital video SaaS companies delivering online and wireless solutions to over 10,000 enterprises; and was involved with three semiconductor startups (two of which he founded, one of which he sold). He started his career engineering massively parallel processing datacenter applications. Jim has an Electrical and Computer Science Engineering degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, with an emphasis in semiconductor design and computer science; and an MBA from the University of San Diego with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and finance.