Business Technology Roundtable

The cloud movement is about much more than the service offerings. It's a core ingredient of a larger commercial transformation movement -- where savvy leaders are using business technology to advance their operations and accelerate their key processes. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on hosted private cloud (HPC) services will be more than $24 billion in 2016. IDC says that they define HPC as an operational model for deploying computing infrastructure services of many types via the cloud. IDC forecasts that HPC spending will experience a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent during the 2012-2016 period, as companies look to managed cloud services in its various forms as a means to transform the 'how' of what they provide to their customers. Evolution of Public and Private Cloud Models IDC believes that hosted private cloud offerings will become the backbone of a new set of infrastructure...

While most commentary about managed cloud services tend to focus on the advances in commercial enterprise applications, government agencies are also making noteworthy progress. In particular, the advent of regional community cloud hubs is a phenomenon that's worthy of further exploration. According to their latest market study and related report, IDC Government Insights believes regional cloud hubs will significantly change the way state and local governments procure online computing services. These regional cloud hubs, defined as one government agency offering computing and storage services to other government agencies, have proven successful in the State of Michigan and State of Utah. In addition, the IDC's research provides a framework for building similar regional cloud solutions. According to Shawn McCarthy, research analyst, IDC Government Insights, "We believe that cloud hubs will see rapid growth, since the first multi-agency efforts have already shown a pos...

Gartner recently shared their top technology predictions. They said that increased transparency -- and the need to drive business value -- are bringing disruptive change to IT organizations in 2011 and beyond. One of their key findings: cloud computing will enable many organizations to exploit internal capabilities to establish new business service revenue streams. Other informed industry analysts share a similar point of view. Businesses are increasingly moving their computing and collaboration applications to the cloud, and their shift in IT spending reflects that change in behavior. A recent market study by In-Stat forecasts cloud computing and managed hosting spending by U.S. businesses will surpass $13 billion in 2014, up from less than 3 billion today. “Although spending across all sectors and size of business is projected to grow, there are some segments where growth will be staggering,” says Greg Potter, Research Analyst at In-Stat. Apparently, based on In-Stat’s ass...

A West Chester, PA-based company was searching for IT help, to more effectively and securely distribute confidential and proprietary content to its customers. Enter Verizon Business, with its managed cloud service offering. Modevity, LLC will use Verizon Computing as a Service (CaaS), an on-demand, flexible solution that allows businesses to harness cloud computing to better manage IT resources and deliver performance and security that supports their growth. Better Alignment of Financial and Human Capital In addition to these benefits, Modevity expects to see a significant positive impact on the company's bottom line as a result of embracing this managed cloud service offering. "We are focused on continuing to grow Modevity in a smart way by making key resource decisions in terms of capital and staffing expenditures," said Tom J. Canova, co-founder and chief marketing officer for Modevity. "Moving to a virtual environment with Verizon Business allows us to consoli...

Like any new business technology, the early development of cloud services can be a little confusing -- as some descriptions are still open to interpretation. However, the dialog is helpful, because it enables us to focus on the true business value of data center resources. According to Forrester Research , cloud computing platforms are more than shared multi-tenant infrastructures on the public Internet. There are three infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud deployment options available; each has unique characteristics and economics. Forrester’s three cloud service scenarios follow: Which cloud service scenario is a best-fit for your business needs? Well, that depends upon a number of related factors -- such as your organizational bias for direct control, sensitivity to risk, and overall usage requirements for a cloud computing platform. Public Cloud Scenario Public clouds are easily accessible, multi-tenant virtualized infrastructures that are managed via a self-service portal. The...