Cloud Computing is Misunderstood, But Maybe it Doesn’t Matter

I predict that 2012 will be the year that cloud computing loses a lot of its luster for enterprises.

Not because it is going away or anything like that. Rather, the opposite is happening — it is becoming so ubiquitous and commonplace that business and IT end-users alike will almost forget that they’re even using software off the cloud.

Three recent industry surveys conducted over the past couple of months point to the ubiquity of cloud:

1) Many people are using cloud and not realizing it. A recent survey of 705 companies by Microsoft Canada found that 19% of those who indicated they are not currently using cloud services were in fact leveraging cloud computing solutions and services — since it was a survey conducted by Microsoft, it was pointed out that people aren’t identifying services such as Microsoft Web Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Azure as “cloud” services.  In fact, the 19% figure may be way too low.

Read More of Joe McKendrick’s Blog Post on Forbes