In 2013 IT Will Take Back Control of Corporate Data, Symform Predicts

Symform, a company known for its decentralized approach to cloud storage, has come up with a list of trends that it says will dominate the cloud computing scene through the next 12 months.

Last year the company predicted – correctly, to a large extent -- that companies would be likely to experience a disparity between local and remote storage costs. The company also predicted of growing environmental concerns over large build out of datacenters to support centralized cloud platforms.

This year the company says there will be even greater awareness of the wasted, unused capacity in the existing infrastructure investments. This will necessitate the increased adoption of distributed, decentralized systems. This in turn will generate larger investments in data management, big data, and distributed systems and enable IT sector to gain back control of rogue devices and cloud applications.

Symform said that cloud storage on-ramps will enter the mainstream, giving a focused approach toward data classification and management. This will help businesses match the appropriate storage requirements, including primary or secondary backup, archiving, and disaster recovery. This, in turn, will drive increased demand and market penetration of the currently burgeoning cloud storage on-ramp or gateway market.

The company maintained that the trends will impact both large enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as the IT service providers who deliver solutions to them.

In 2013, Symform anticipates IT will regain control by implementing stringent security policies and access control rules for cloud services and employee-liable mobile devices. In many cases, especially among SMBs, third-party consultants or channel partners will be called in to determine whether the proper security policies are in place and being enforced. This, Symform predicts, will lead to the decline of popular unsanctioned cloud collaboration or file sharing services that threaten a company's ability to maintain regulatory compliance and adhere to their own internal security requirements.

Then, with the improved focus on data classification, companies will look for cheaper alternatives to store inactive or archival data, while being willing to pay premiums for highly reliable, scalable and secure cloud storage for active data. This trend will move beyond early adopters of cloud storage, such as consumer-facing Web 2.0 and eCommerce companies, to the overall business-to-business market.

In 2013, Symform expects that many businesses will look beyond traditional computing approaches for alternative solutions and architectures. Specifically, both vendors and companies will accept distributed and decentralized approaches to data management, not only for the green benefits, but for the improved utilization of existing infrastructure, increased performance, and global resiliency.

Lastly, companies are expected to demand more sStringent SLAs and reliability from cloud providers In 2012, customers bore the brunt of outages from cloud vendors including Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) (AWS), Apple iCloud, GoDaddy, Rackspace, Google, Microsoft and Twitter. It wasn't cheap.

“As we enter 2013, the massive growth of digital data and the challenges around how to secure, manage and store that data is only increasing -- in spite of the many technologies and cloud solutions aimed at alleviating these issues. Last year, we correctly predicted the continued disparity between local and remote storage costs, along with an increased concern over the high cost and environmental impact of a record build out of datacenters to support centralized cloud platforms. This year, we will see even greater awareness of the wasted, unused capacity in our existing infrastructure investments and the need to embrace distributed, decentralized systems. This will enable IT's efforts to gain back control of rogue devices and cloud applications,” CEO of Symform Matthew J. Schiltz commented in a statement.

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