Gartner, Inc. identified its top 10 technologies and trends for 2010 during their Gartner Expo held in October 2009. Not surprisingly Cloud Computing and Social Networking made their Top 10 list:
- Cloud computing
- Advanced analytics
- Client computing
- Green IT
- Reshaping the datacenter
- Social networking
- Security – activity monitoring
- Flash memory
- Virtualization for availability
- Mobile applications
So what is Cloud Computing and why is it being identified as a technology to watch for in 2010?
Cloud Computing means delivering technology solutions over the Internet leveraging hardware and software that are provided by the datacenters. The services in cloud computing then are referred to as Saas or Software as a service. The hardware and software will be the cloud. Companies like Google and Microsoft will provide users with software that resides on their servers. You won't need to buy or install software on your computer. If you've used Google docs or Google Documents; you would know how it works. Other examples are gmail and office mail.
Now I'm talking about Cloud Computing specifically because Cloud Computing will impact how outsourcing will evolve in 2010 and beyond. Outsourcing vendors will still be in demand to provide outsourcing services but perhaps they'll evolve into a paid subscription model rather than a development model. More about Cloud Computing and its impact on the outsourcing market in an upcoming blog....