Often times one mental hurdle that can hold businesses back from the modernization of their IT infrastructure through the use of the relatively new phenomenon of cloud computing is the simple feeling of being afraid to “jump on the bandwagon” too early. After all, there have been many trends in business and technology that seemed unstoppable at one time, only to be eclipsed by something else and then subsequently forgotten. So, how is one to judge where exactly the current cloud computing data revolution is headed?
Well, there have been several surveys taken recently regarding the increasing popularity of online data backup and cloud computing that have caught our attention here at KinetiD. One of these polls, conducted by Forrester Research, found that 53% of businesses worldwide were interested in virtualizing their IT infrastructure and making the full transition into cloud computing. When asked why they felt this way the responses were quite varied, with some claiming cloud computing’s potential to save them money on IT equipment costs as being their number one reason, while others cited the flexibility of data access that cloud computing could bring about for their businesses.
Another recent poll conducted by IDC found 210 upper-level business executives that were pro-cloud computing and database virtualization. They explained their responses were the way they were because they could easily see the potential of receiving more valuable information from their data through the increased levels of data accessibility that goes hand in hand with cloud computing and online data backup. In addition to this, they almost all seemed to look forward to finally being free of devoting so much of their valuable resources toward the maintenance of their own servers so that they could instead utilize the resulting extra time and money toward working on other aspects of their developing businesses.
So, it appears that public sentiment amongst upper-level business personnel is definitely tipping towards a seemingly unavoidable shift to cloud computing. However, obviously public sentiment on this issue is far from unanimous, with many businesses insisting upon keeping their existing hardware infrastructures for all their business’s computing needs, including backing up. Indeed, the debate over whether or not cloud computing is the way of the future essentially boils down to the question of who will ultimately be responsible for managing the fundamental infrastructure for small to medium-sized businesses, and where should a company’s money be spent towards the implementation of that infrastructure. Should it be spent in the purchasing of more and more physical IT equipment or the hiring of off-site data management experts?
Regardless, as stated before, the overall outlook seems to point towards the increased virtualization of IT management for business. As you read this, more and more businesses are taking their first step toward virtualization by making the decision to back up their data online. After that, many small to mid-sized businesses will end up looking to utilize virtual computing environments to increase their resources, effectively extending their existing physical IT infrastructure by adding on additional cloud computing ability as the need arises. Then, finally, many businesses are deciding to cut down on maintenance costs and lost work hours by selling their extra in-house IT equipment and moving as much of their data processing and storing activities as possible entirely to the cloud.
With cloud technologies like data replication, de-duplication, data mirroring and increasingly advanced levels of data encryption, more and more business owners everyday are talking about the enhanced data flexibility and security that online data backup and cloud computing can bring about for their enterprises. We here at KineticD are excited to be on the forefront of this revolution in information technology by offering both KineticSecure, our suite of easy-to-use, fully automated online backup services, and KineticExtend, our on the go cloud computing suite, which come together to create the perfect all-in-one package that will put your small to medium-sized business on the fast track to the future of information technology. Why not try our free 14-day trial today to find out for yourself what cloud computing could do for your business?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!