Online storage will one day be the norm

Category:: Online Storage
Monday, April 23, 2012

Though more companies than ever before have migrated data, applications, systems or all of the above to hosted environments during the past five years or so, cloud computing has only recently transformed from a fringe technology. That will quickly change moving forward, a Florida Today report recently noted, as one day the cloud will become the norm.

At some point, Florida Institute of Technology professor of software engineering Scott Tilley said, companies and individuals alike won't give the use of online storage and other hosted services a second thought.

"Over time, as long as it's not shown to be any less secure, I think its adoption will at least stay stable, and maybe increase," Tilley told the news provider. "It will eventually become something we won't think of very much."

Even now, the concerns that companies may have had regarding the cloud are quickly dissipating as the technology's many benefits become more apparent.

In the case of online storage, the platform provides companies of all sizes near-limitless space to house all kinds of information without having to also worry about maintaining on-premise services and data centers. All such responsibility is left up to the third-party vendor.

That allows IT decision-makers and the company as a whole to worry less about information processes and pay more attention to more pressing business matters. In this regard, file hosting has proven extremely beneficial for smaller firms that may not have the available capital and resources as larger enterprises.

Last year, research firm IDC highlighted the popularity of cloud storage by predicting the market for such solutions will reach $20 billion by 2015. Beginning in 2010, analysts said, the market for enterprise cloud storage services will expand at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 24 percent.