1. We’ll finally stop saying that everything is going cloud. And get real about what fits and what doesn’t. We now have enough understanding about what makes cloud platforms different from traditional virtual infrastructures and traditional hosting environments to make architecturally sound decisions about which applications to move to the cloud.
2. Cloud and mobile will become one. What’s the value of a mobile app that doesn’t call out through the Internet to back-end services? Not much. And where will these back-end services live? Probably not in your datacenter — unless you plan to poke a big hole in your firewall to accommodate an unpredictable flood of traffic. More often than not, we are finding mobile applications connected to cloud-based back-end services that can elastically respond to mobile client engagements and shield your data center from this traffic. As Forrester analyst Glenn O’Donnell puts it, cloud plus mobile is a classic “more than the sum of its parts” combination.
3. We’ll stop stressing about cloud SLAs. And recognize that apps have to protect themselves. The best practice for cloud application design and configuration is to build resiliency into the application rather than expect it from the cloud platform. This way you can achieve any service-level agreement regardless of the base SLA provided by the cloud platform. Getting the performance you need is an application-specific goal anyway. What’s the value of having your sourcing and vendor management team negotiate a high and tight SLA from the cloud vendor when only 10% of the applications deployed there need that level of protection?
4. We’ll get real about cost modeling. Do the math, understand the economics, and monitor and optimize as your use evolves. If you want to get the best ROI out of your use of cloud services and platforms, you need to actively model the cost profile of your applications, monitor their resource use, and adjust accordingly.
5. Infrastructure & operations will free the development teams to build apps in the cloud. In 2013 the I&O team will get comfortable with the fact that development on public clouds is going to happen whether they like it or not and it’s easier for them to engage developers and be part of the conversation about how to do it safely, securely, and with appropriate oversight.
8. We’ll stop equating cloud with AWS. While Amazon Web Services has opened up a substantial lead in the cloud platforms market — arguably as large as 70% market share — in 2013 we’ll see that market position give way to a cadre of strengthening competitors and new entrants. Microsoft and Google have made significant improvements to their platforms, and by the end of 2013 we fully expect to see at least three substantial OpenStack-based cloudsbuilding strong positions.
9. We’ll acknowledge that advanced virtualization is a good thing, and no, it’s not a cloud. The cloudwashing award for 2012 definitely goes to enterprise I&O departments who relabeled last year’s VMware environment a private cloud so they could “get to yes” in the eyes of their CIO. Very few of these environments offered self-service to the developer, fully-automated provisioning, standardized services, or cost transparency. In 2013, let’s get real about these environments. A mostly static virtual environment that successfully drives workload consolidation, operational efficiencies and fast recovery is a good thing — a very good thing. It’s just not a cloud and nor should it be. Enterprise I&O teams should be happily bipolar: Your optimized and dynamic virtual environment and your on-demand private cloud both have a place in the datacenter. They solve different problems and meet different demands. Don’t waste energy trying to make one into the other when they’re both delivering value.
10. Developers will awaken to: Development isn’t all that different in the cloud. There are no cloud-specific or cloud-best languages. Our cloud developer survey shows that the majority of languages, frameworks, and development methodologies we use in the enterprise are also in use in the cloud. What’s different isn’t the coding but the services orientation and the need to configure the application to provide its own availability and performance. And frankly this isn’t all that new either. We’ve had to worry about these aspects with our websites since 2000. While some of the best practices and cloud services may be new, there are few excuses for a well-trained developer to not be productive in the cloud.