Posted by Stephanie O'Neill on Tue, Jun 09, 2009 @ 04:17 PM
It's amazing to me how far technology has come in the past 15 years. At the risk of embarrassing myself, I admit I was a late bloomer when it came to technology. I made it through college using a Brother word processor, which consisted of a typewriter and a pseudo-computer screen with lovely green type, and I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't touch a computer (a very old Mac with a tiny, nine-inch screen) until my first job, and that was more than daunting. Then there was this thing called email, another foreign anomaly in my young professional life. It wasn't long after my introduction to the computer and email that I got my first cell phone, one of the largest known to man. I don't even think I used the Internet until the late 90s. But that was then ...
Today, I couldn't live without my computer, email, the Internet and cell phone technology. In the early 90s, I never would have imagined I'd be working in the tech industry, pitching the benefits of HP wares before finding myself in this burgeoning industry called "cloud computing." But I am a firm believer in the benefits of technology, and the sky is the limit - literally.
Cloud computing isn't just a fly-by-night operation. I believe it is the new wave of the future. And it makes perfect sense. If you look at the history of technology, innovators have always found ways to make things more efficient, reduce costs, expand features and simplify functionality for end users. Businesses are looking for ways to achieve the same things, especially in a down economy, and cloud computing is the right solution, delivered in a convenient and customizable package, where the possibilities are endless. More and more companies are building their mobile workforces and allowing staff the option of telecommuting, so providing employees with the flexibility to access information anytime, anywhere is a good thing for everyone.
But you don't just have to take my word for it. Leading industry analyst firm Gartner predicts that cloud computing will jump from $46.4 billion in 2008 to $150.1 billion in 2013, and many of the big guys are taking notice - Microsoft, HP, IBM and SAP, to name a few.
Remember when the Internet was destined to fail? There will always be naysayers, but I think cloud computing is here to stay. We've only begun to scratch the surface of the next big thing technology has put at our fingertips.