Should you move your business to the cloud? Read these valuable facts about cloud computing and expert predictions on where it's heading. http://www.apptix.com/about-us/apptix-blog/december-2014/50-things-you-absolutely-need-to-know-about-the-cl.aspx

2. Spending on public cloud services
could be more than $180 billion by
next year, says the IT research
group Gartner as quoted in
InformationWeek.

3. The cloud allows for quick
scalability to meet demand.
Companies can quickly scale cloud
services and storage up or down
as needed.

4. The public cloud will grow 45%
annually over the next five
years, while on-site computing
will grow by just under 9%,
according to Barron’s Tech
Trader Daily and Piper Jaffray.

5. Cloud providers can efficiently,
accurately and quickly manage
upgrades, backup, disaster
recovery, maintenance, security
and more.

6. According to a Cisco survey, if IT
decision makers could choose
only one application…
● 25% would choose storage
● 20% would choose ERP
(enterprise resource planning)
● 16% would choose email
● 15% would choose collaboration
● 14% would choose other

7. Companies using the cloud can
save on capital costs because
they don’t have to buy any (or as
many) servers, software, etc.

8. Companies concerned with being
environmentally sound can
choose green IT (data centers
powered by renewable energy,
like a wind farm for example.)

9. According to an NSK survey of
3500 IT executives, more than
80% saved money by moving
company business to the cloud.

10. Nearly 15% of IT companies in the
NSK survey downsized staff after
moving to the cloud, thereby
saving even more money.

11. Cloud computing allows IT costs
to be more transparent and
expenses can be divided among
department budgets.

12. Almost all of those surveyed by
RightScale, 94%, use cloud
computing. Close to 60% of those
use a combination (public and
private) cloud solution, 30% use
public cloud only and less than
10% use private only.

13. Using the cloud helps small
businesses and entrepreneurs
access the latest, full-featured
technology, quicker and at lower
cost, than they could if they had to
purchase the tech outright.

14. Versus 25% in 2012, by 2020,
60% of storage capacity is
expected to be in cloud apps,
according to Seagate, the
industry’s leading producer of data
storage hardware.

15. Using cloud computing,
companies can operate without a
large IT team in-house.

16. An estimated 1 exabyte of data is
currently in cloud storage,
according to Seagate and
SiliconAngle. One exabyte is
equal to 1000 petabytes (PB), or
1,000,000 terabytes, or
1,000,000,000 gigabytes

17. A whopping 90% of IT
professionals surveyed saw an
improvement in either security,
quality or efficiency after moving
to the cloud, according to NSK.

18. The cloud allows businesses to be
use remote workers. Employees
can work from wherever they are
and share information, documents
and applications in the cloud.

19. Employees and freelance
consultants can use their favorite
devices (and multiple devices) to
access the cloud data or apps.

20. According to Thales e-Security more
than half of the 4000 businesses
surveyed worldwide use the cloud for
confidential information sharing and
storage - and 60% of them believe that
security is the responsibility of the cloud
provider.

21. Small or large firms can save a
significant amount fairly quickly on
software and energy expenses by
moving email to web mail and getting
antivirus protection via cloud software.

22. About 60% of new spending on cloud
computing is by North American
businesses. Western European users
account for about 25% and this trend is
growing, according to Forbes and
Gartner

23. By the end of 2014, businesses in the
United States will spend more than $13
billion on cloud computing and
managed hosting services.

24. More than 60% of businesses use the
cloud for IT operations. Approximately
75% of businesses surveyed said
service availability improved after
moving to the cloud, according to
Security Week

25. According to EMC, nearly 40% of all
information in the digital universe will be
touched in some way by cloud
computing companies.

26. The number of cloud providers is huge:
2200+ cloud services are being used by
3 million people in major business
sectors such as finance, health,
technology, manufacturing, media, and
services.

27. 91% of users surveyed said the cloud
makes it easier to meet government
compliance requirements, according to
Baseline.

28. More than 33% of survey respondents
said that accessibility to cloud
information with multiple devices was
the main reason they adopted cloud
computing, according to Ramco.

29. According to Baseline, 75% of
companies surveyed experienced
improvements in their network
availability.

30. The top cloud file sharing services are
DropBox and Google Drive, and the top
collaboration services are Office 365
and Gmail, according to the Cloud
Security Alliance.

31. Survey respondents stated that the
fastest areas of growth in cloud
applications will be in the IT areas of
big data, backup, help desk operations,
mobile, system management and
security, according to North Bridge
Growth Equity Venture Partners and
GigaOm Research.

32. GigaOM predicts the total world market
for cloud computing will be
approximately $160 billion by the end of
2014, which is up about 125% from just
3 years ago.

33. Businesses can add cloud services as
needed, for instance, you might move
email first, but keep your data files on a
local server and use a cloud-based
system for backup.

34. About 65% of companies surveyed said
that switching to cloud solutions
reduced waste and lowered energy
consumption, according to Ramco.

35. Although data security and intellectual
property rights are concerns when
choosing a cloud provider, 94% of
businesses found that IT security
actually improved after switching to the
cloud, according to Security Week
quoting a ComScore survey.

36. CSC surveyed 3,500 IT decision
makers. 80% of respondents said they
saw improvements in IT performance
within 6 months of switching to the
cloud.

37. The private cloud typically offers more
control, flexibility and performance but
public cloud services may provide
specific applications at a lower cost.
Many businesses use a combination.

38. In 2013, 64% of cloud activity was
related to banking, partly due to the
introduction and adoption of mobile
banking. This was closely followed by
shopping at 63% of cloud activity, social
media at nearly 60%, online gaming
accounted for 45% of cloud activity.
Nearly 30% of cloud activity was due to
photo sharing and almost 20% due to
file sharing, according to NSK Inc.

39. When evaluating a cloud provider,
make sure you understand the details
like the data storage location, how
backups are done and how data is
secured. Get details about the provider’
s disaster planning and also what
service levels are guaranteed.

40. More than 60% of cloud users said their
levels of privacy protection increased,
according to Security Week quoting a
Microsoft study.

41. The cloud allows companies to shift
employees to other tasks like data
analysis, strategic planning or sales.

42. SaaS (software as a service) is the
most popular of cloud services, used by
about 65% of companies surveyed by
GigaOM and North Bridge.

43. Nearly 40% of respondents plan to
increase their training investment to
support the expansion of cloud
computing in their business, according
to GigaOM and North Bridge.

44. Cloud advertising is the largest
segment of the cloud services market,
making up almost 50% percent of the
market in 2012, with $310 billion to be
spent through 2016, according to
Gartner.

45. Gartner predicts that, through 2016, the
most widely used cloud services
segment (after advertising) will be
business process services (BPaaS,
nearly 30% of total market), followed by
application services (SaaS, software as
a service at nearly 15%), cloud system
infrastructure (infrastructure as a
service, called IaaS, at about 6%),
cloud management and security service
(at about 3%), and application
infrastructure services (PaaS, platform
as a service at 1%).

46. By 2020, private and public clouds will
be common and will exchange data
seamlessly, according to EMC.

47. When surveyed by Citrix and Wakefield
Research, consumers said the cloud
would benefit the economy by lowering
costs for businesses and lowering
prices for them (35%), spurring small
business growth (32%) and generating
jobs (said 26% of Millennials and only
19% of Baby Boomers).

48. More than 75% of survey respondents
expect hybrid cloud solutions to be the
core of their cloud strategies within five
years, according to GigaOM.

49. Among those reluctant to use the cloud,
the top reasons were cost (34%),
security issues (32%) and privacy
concerns (31%), according to GigaOM.

50. Despite all of the cloud usage, many
members of the public don’t realize
when they are using it. According to a
survey by Citrix, 95% of consumers
said they never use the cloud, but when
asked, said they do engage in online
shopping, social media, mobile banking
and more.

51. According to Wakefield Research, a
little over 50% of respondents, including
a majority of Millennials (born in the
1980s and 90s), think that stormy
weather interferes with cloud
computing.

52. Read the full article with links and resources on Apptix.com
50 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About the Cloud