Why Is Cloud The Future Of Enterprise Mobile Apps?

Why is Cloud the Future of Enterprise Mobile Apps?

Cloud computing has grown as a vital process for completing computing strategy adopted by a mobile app development company. Know what would be the appropriate cloud computing model for business. How and why cloud computing has captured the market? It caters easier access to technology and helps to reduce on costs too.

Over the years, cloud computing has grown in leaps and bounds, from a mere testing tool to a vital process, which any mobile app development company – large or small have, adopted as a part and parcel of their complete computing strategy. The basic question for all the enterprises and mobile app developers should not be about implementing cloud computing within their business strategy, but what would be the most suitable cloud computing model to solve their business needs right from start to finish.

So what’s the entire fuss about cloud computing market and its growth, one may ask? For large enterprises, cloud computing simply provides easier access to technology which was previously tough to reach and is also an excellent way to reduce on costs as it provides great flexibility when it comes to executing IT services.

Installing and upgrading software, ensuring backups are well-maintained, apps being consolidated into one multi-application cloud computing service, cutting back majorly on system hardware and a customized integration process are just a few of the benefits enterprises can reap out of cloud computing.

According to a study by Oxford Economics, they generated three key points which have been shared by Forbes Magazine, some of which include:

• Top-line growth, collaboration among employees, and supply chain are the three areas enterprises expect cloud computing to impact most in three years.
• Developing new products and services, new lines of business and entering new markets are three key areas in which cloud computing is transforming enterprises.
• 58% of enterprises predict their use of cloud computing will increase top-line revenue growth in three years.
• 67% of enterprises say that today marketing, purchasing, and supply chain are somewhat and mostly cloud-based.

Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure states, “Cloud computing is rapidly evolving, we are thrilled to take it to the next level”. The word ‘cloud’ has been a popular technical term buzzing over the years, but companies have realized its true value only now owing to its speed, scale and mainly its economic benefits, and are thus migrating their critical business data and application infrastructure to cloud services.

Before we progress any further to the latest cloud trends and what does the future hold for cloud application development, do we all know what cloud actually means? Whether you’re an iPhone app developer or Android app developer or a leading mobile app development company, it is vital to know what cloud computing is all about.

Cloud computing is nothing but storing and accessing all your sensitive data and programs over the internet instead of physically accessing it through pen drives and hard disk drives, which can be a risky affair. In other words, the cloud is just another fancy word for all the services you access over the World Wide Web!

A recent survey conducted by Forbes Magazine – Predicting The Future Of Cloud Service Providers states that “55% of enterprises predict cloud computing would generate brand new business models within the next three years”.

What does this mean for enterprises? It implies that in near future, as the enterprises are moving towards 100% cloud technology, there will be medium-to-heavy cloud investments. The cloud technology is being used extensively to kickstart brand new business models, streamline supply chains, and develop applications and platforms to manage and analyze data in better and innovative ways.

According to a survey by RapidScale, 94% of businesses saw a remarkable improvement in security after switching to the cloud. Before we take an in-depth look at what the future of cloud computing holds for us, let’s take a quick glance at the upcoming cloud trends in store for us in 2016.

1) Hybrid Cloud:

With a whopping increase from 8% to 82% of major enterprises switching to hybrid cloud strategy, 2016 looks like the hybrid cloud trend is all set to take over public and private cloud alternatives. Why is a hybrid cloud so popular? It’s a combination of the best of both worlds – private and public cloud options. And how? Private cloud’s security + Public cloud computing’s economic benefit. Voila!

Also, it’s extremely flexible when it comes to the various demands of your projects as it provides customized solutions to the different requirements of each application you may be running. This means, while scaling up hybrid cloud computing gives you the benefit of achieving greater server usage at nominal costs, you can also keep your sensitive data on private servers at the same time.

So, don’t be amazed if you see more and more startups, companies offering Android app development services and iPhone app development services and SME’s moving towards a hybrid cloud strategy!

2) Container Technology:

This is another trend which is trending currently and is going to be seen more often next year. Container technology is the best tool when it comes to effective resource utilization, especially when it makes no sense to run a single application on an entire operating system.

Here’s where containers-as-a-service (CaaS) pops in. With containerization, as stated by Martin Green, ‘provides enough resources to run an application, without creating conflict with other application containers running on the same machine. This eliminates the problem of using a whole OS to run one application.’

3) Smooth Delivery:

This implies great news for development and operations teams as cloud services are expected to increase their support even more for continuous delivery in 2016.

With non-stop delivery, applications can be kept updated from the backend and immediate delivery to end users, even if they are using the app midway. The biggest benefit about this trend is that as the complexity of online apps is on the rise, new updates would be required daily, without fail, and sometimes even as close to multiple times in a day.

The benefits of this trend encompass more engaged users and a stark improvement in the overall performance of the app. Also, it helps the Development and Operations team by significantly reducing the time taken to resolve bugs as well as the reduction of repetitive tasks.

What does the future of cloud computing look like?

Very bright! Looking ahead, the future packs in for greater times ahead when it comes to the cloud. With new innovations and newer business application models, it’s no secret that cloud computing has taken off an extremely bright note.

Revolution is a heavy word and lets us admits it’s used all the time even when not required. But when it comes to cloud computing, which deserves the revolution tag, certain enterprises have lowered it down, as most of their cloud applications have only been simple extensions to Web hosting or server consolidation.

Cloud is much more than that! But, with a few trends like the above, it’s finally driving the cloud to the right place at last and giving it what it truly deserves. Thinking from a long-term perspective, the following represents the future of cloud apps, which includes – platform services, cloud-centric operations and support, and cloud-ready software and data models. Here are some more predictions about where cloud computing is going to be in like 2020!

4) More App Availability on Cloud:

Industry-specific applications are already in the process of becoming more and more available on the cloud. For example; Palo BI Suite for business intelligence and TripIt as a personal travel organizing tool. If you would like to know more cloud-based apps being used by enterprises, do read 20 Most Popular Cloud-Based Apps Downloaded into Enterprises by Joe McKendrick  a contributor on Forbes.

It has been predicted by most of the cloud application developers that most of the applications will be accessed via cloud by 2020. About 56% of all the enterprises think of the cloud as a strategic differentiator and around 58% of enterprises spend as much as 10 % of their annual budgets on cloud devices.

5) Awareness:

Cloud won’t be seen as a bizarre term anymore in future! Mobile app users and other consumers would understand what cloud actually means, how it operates and the basic differences between public, private as well as hybrid cloud deployments. Companies can look forward to seeing greater segmentation as well as better awareness about the kind of cloud which is best suited for them according to their requirements. Companies which work with shared clouds are exposed to a risk of slower performance and higher security threats! Hence, enterprises and industry leaders can expect a swift migration to private clouds in near future.

6) Cloud meets HR and Marketing:

Yes! Cloud computing is making its presence felt within the human resources and marketing list as well! As major firms and enterprises are witnessing a higher use of big data application via the cloud, they will also begin to check the ROI that is possible when human resources and marketing utilize the cloud for their respective department. Before cloud computing could get around, every department of a firm had to always pass through the IT section, but with cloud data, it has changed the management as well as current and outdated procedures.

According to Richard Protheroe who has authored The Future of Cloud Computing: Billion Market By 2018, top-line growth, employee bonding through collaboration and supply chain are the three prime areas which cloud computing would impact within the next three years.

As the cloud automation is bound to become faster, human interaction and intervention within firms are going to become less frequent, which will enable IT to devote more time on strategic planning endeavors.

It has been stated by CloudTech that, “Orchestration is particularly effective in helping companies lower expenditures and maintain a sound ebb and flow of work in the IT department, which is why so many firms are looking to get a hand on this tricky matter.”

Cloud is here to stay and is going to evolve over the next few years as the demand in the market is all set to grow. Like it has been predicted by all experts, almost all the large enterprises, in some way or the other, have no choice but have to rely on the cloud.

Author’s Bio

Hemant Shinde