IBM Buys Aspera, and Other Important Cloud and Data Center Trends

IBM (News - Alert) has announced an agreement to acquire file transfer specialist Aspera Inc. The California company provides technology for the secure and speedy transfer of massive data files throughout the world. So fast is this patented technology, according to Aspera (News - Alert), that it can in 30 second deliver a 24gigabyte file to the other end of the Earth.

That’s important, given a new Infonetics Research study indicates that more than three-fourths of enterprises surveyed cite improving application performance as a top driver for investing in their data centers.

IBM last month alone announced massive cloud computing deals in China working with energy distributor ENN Energy and data center service provider 21Vianet. IBM also helped Brazilian service provider Alelo migrate to a cloud data center and is working with several major institutions in the European financial sector on cloud infrastructure and managed services.

The market cloud computing technology will exceed $100 billion in 2014, a 25 percent growth over the previous year, according to IDC (News - Alert). The research firm also predicts that by 2017, more than 80 percent of new cloud apps will be hosted on six PaaS platforms. IDC also believes that growth of big data technology will continue with a 30 percent increase in spending to more than $14 billion.

Frank Gens, senior VP and chief analyst at IDC, said: “In 2014, we'll see every major player make big investments to scale up cloud, mobile, and big data capabilities, and fiercely battle for the hearts and minds of the developers who will create the solutions driving the next two decades of IT spending. Outside the IT industry, 3rd Platform technologies will play a leading role in the disruption (or Amazoning) of almost every other industry on the planet." 

By Third Platform, IDC is referring to a platform consisting of big data and analytics, cloud services, mobile, and social networks. IDC believes the Third Platform will drive IT spending, which the research firm expects to rise 5 percent to research $2.1 trillion in 2014.