Gartner and KPMG Insight: Why Almost 50% World Data will be Held in Cloud

The world’s business ecosystems are being changed by cloud computing. ‘Cloud is poised to change the business arena’ this is according to A report by KPMG titled, ‘The cloud changing the business ecosystem’ KPMG suggests the need for more efficiency through solutions brought about by putting heads together and by actual-time exchange of information. In another survey published in January 2011 dubbed ‘the why of the cloud Gartner’s CIO’s Agenda’ CIO’s declared the cloud as their top priority for that year. Gartner also predicted about 33 % of digital content would be stored on the cloud.

“Users are turning to the cloud and their data will be stored on the cloud” claimed Gartner a firm that deals with analysis. Kumar Parakala head of IT advisory KPMG India and EMA and Pra Deep Udhas, head of IT/ITeS sector KPMG India said that advanced economies and businesses have gained a competitive edge by combining creativity and technology. Further they stated that countries like India and China which have taken advantage of their large populations and technology could improve their ability to compete with developed world through acceptance of the cloud.

Times are rapidly changing and every ten years since the 70’s there have been great changes sweeping the IT sector. The 70’s had mainframes, the 80’s saw the invasion of the PC, and client-server architecture swarmed the 90’s. this clearly indicates the revolution in the current times the industry of cloud computing and related technologies are set to bring an overhaul in IT setups, functions and expertise and its operations. A major boost to adoption of these advances however, was that, each change came after a period of reduced economic activity which instigated the acute need for better efficiency and profitability in businesses.

The cloud probably carries so much hope due to its flexibility, scalability and its cost-effective nature enabled by the SaaS model of business. “It’s time for organizations to reinvent their paradigms and for their leaders to redefine their It strategies so as to clearly depict the altering role of technology” Pradeep Udhas, head of IT/ITeS sector KPMG in India said.

Cloud Expansion

The impact of the ever-changing computing industry has been key to technological alteration for many of the previous years. It has altered the functioning of both individuals and businesses. The constant changing has allowed businesses to innovate thereby giving them a head start in the competition for the global market.

In 2011 only 7% of user content was in the cloud and this is expected to rise to 36% by 2016. Not forgetting the increase in tablets, PC’s smart phones and other mobile computing device adoption which now enables the user to collect a lot of data mainly photos and videos. Soon the storage on their devices will simply not be enough. The firm predicts that data storage needs will shoot by 91% from 321 Exabyte’s in 2011 to 412 zeta bytes in 2016. On average a house hold will need about 3.3 terabytes online storage as compared to 464 Giga bytes in 2011.

The principal research analyst at Gartner says that while in the past users stored data on the PC’s now that we are in a post-PC era, consumers are using many inter connected devices most of which have cameras. This brings about great quantities of data for which storage has to be provided. She went on to add that the rapidly increasing user content will quickly be separated from the various devices now that the personal cloud has emerged.

Cloud computing has gained favor from SME’s and large enterprises alike. The cloud enables use of software and other services and you only pay as much as you use as opposed to past times when you had to procure personal infrastructure. According to Gartner social media sites will also play their part by providing storage for photos and videos from users who want to share, which will lead to the aforestated increase in storage per household.

Gartner believes that users who are increasingly depending on their devices which have cameras will also be encompassed in this need for cloud storage. These users try out free basic cloud services but end up signing up for premium services upon realization that they need them.

Though hosting of user digital content will still be mainly via local storage it will drop greatly in share from 93% in 2011 to 64% by 2016, so Gartner predicts. Growth on cloud storage will be mainly spurred by Western Europe and North America while Japan and S.Korea will show greatest increase in uptake in their region Gartner goes on to predict.

The report by KPMG particularly put weight on the cloud’s impact on industries such as governments, health, and Education. Such sectors would benefit greatly as the cloud give them socio-economic access which has evade them in the past decades. Also SME’s will benefit from the cloud as it will enable them to compete better with larger players in the industry. The report also considers the Indian environment and the tax implications of offering and subscribing to the cloud.Nitrin Khanapurkar, Ed, advisory services, KMPG in India also added that on the overall IT industry would change to take into account this new service. Organization would go on deploying to the cloud to ensure they stay at the forefront. The cloud is not something going away but rather a reality here to stay and it is only beginning to realize its potential.

From the KPMG study here are a few ideas put forward:

It says that as the cloud enters the arena, organizations are again required to choose between technologies. To quickly adapt the cloud would put a company in a greater advantage to reform its business thereby getting a head start in terms of competition. Apart from the cost-effective nature of the cloud, there are other advantages that come with the cloud. Companies can comfortably leave the running of IT hardware and software to the providers of the cloud services while they focus their resources and manpower fully on their main competencies. In addition, organizations gain flexibility with the ability to quickly acquire resources when business opportunities present themselves.