Cloud Tsunami: Saas, Paas, Iaas, Private, Public, and Hybrid Clouds – There’s One for Everyone!

Businesses tend to Overestimate a technology’s impact in the short-run and Underestimate its impact in the long-run. In the next 5 years, there are going to be 15 billion devices connected to the internet and a lot of trends are going to transform the connected network. Concepts like “Always-on” and “anytime, anywhere, anydevice” are taken for granted and the picture is incomplete without an element of cloud in them. One interesting aspect of cloud computing is enabling the emergence of measuring IT for the first time. As Intel’s Andy Grover said “if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.”

Few bloggers have covered Cloud Computing exhaustively. Sramana Mitra’s blog did give us good insights into cloud start-ups and their founders. Sully’s Blog and Fusible have already covered the cloud domain and interesting cloud trends. Cloudbook.net has indepth articles on many aspects of Cloud Computing.

The much talked about sale of   iCloud.com by Apple for more than US$ 4 million and recent news of Amazon acquiring Cloud.co for an undisclosed sum have shaken up many disbelievers and naysayers of Cloud and the race has just begun on how to capitalize on this cloud wave. The iCloud.com and Cloud.co news were widely diggd, shared, teweeted, retweeted, buzzed, stumbled upon by the media.  I wouldn’t be surprised if over the next few quarters any name with “cloud” as a prefix or a suffix quotes for high premiums in the after market and a mad rush for grabbing a piece of the cloud pie ensues. Let a thousand clouds bloom and let all those in the value chain flourish. Looks like every Cloud has a silver lining.

When one digs more into the Cloud, there are many types and models of Cloud like Private Cloud, Public Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Community Cloud, Enterprise Cloud, Infrastructure as a service (IAAS), Platform as a service (PAAS), Software as a Service (SAAS), Business as a service (BAAS), Gaming as a service (GAAS), BPaas, Haas…or easier to say…Anything as a service(XAAS). The EMC-IDC study estimates that by 2020 more than a third of all digital information created every year will either live in or pass through the cloud.

Latest study by CIO Association of India on the Indian cloud market is interesting. The findings are:

Cloud Sales Report:

Cloud Computing is sure rewriting the rules of the game. Everything in the cloud space is hot – startups, venture capital funding, Cloud Stocks, Cloud IPOs,  and Cloud Domain Names. Aftermarket in the cloud domain space:

I made my first move in this space in 2011 by Cloudcomputing.in. Trying to add more content to – CloudComputing.in . Also, formulating a roadmap for it in consultation with few friends working in the cloud space.

CLOUDCOMPUTING.IN

I am convinced of Cloud’s Potential and have reasons for being bullish on this space. What reasons do you have for being bullish or bearish on the cloud?

Additional Reading on Cloud :

1) 11 Cloud Computing Predictions For 2011

2) 2011 Top 10 SMB Technology Market Predictions