Development of the Customized Cloud

Trend 7: Development of the Customized Cloud

Cloud computing will continue on a tearing pace in 2012?nosurprise there. But based on our data, we expect one development to quicklyemerge as a significant story: the use of platform as a service. PaaS isessentially cloud-based programming of custom cloud applications or of cloudarchitecture.

From year to year, expected use of PaaS has nearly doubled,from 6 percent ?strong? or ?very strong? use in 2011 to 12 percent in 2012. While other forms of cloud computing will remain morecommon, none are growing as quickly as PaaS.

This is not an unexpected trend, however. The cloudcomputing model is a disruptive one that introduces multiple new applicationsto supplement and replace existing non-cloud ones on an ongoing basis.

This, in the end, necessitates plenty of integration: ofcloud services with each other, of private cloud solutions with public ones andof the cloud infrastructure with non-cloud infrastructure. Just as everyorganization has its own customized application set, the rise of PaaSrepresents the advent of the custom cloud, which is built for the particularneeds of each organization.

ARINC, an Annapolis, Md.?based transportation,communications and systems engineering company, has been using VerizonTerramark cloud services to expand its footprint from large internationalairports (where the company has maintained data centers for many years) toinclude smaller ones, where having a server room is impractical. The softwareused by ARINC and its customers is so varied?not just in function but by airline?thatbinding it all together is an essential part of the company?s offering.

?Airlines come to an airport with a wide variety ofapplications that ultimately need to be integrated,? says Mike Picco, vicepresident of ARINC?s Airport Systems division. ?Each application comes fromeach airline?s host system, from our system or from a third party, and all ofthem have to integrate with our cloud and with each other? to provide a systemat the agent?s desktop at the airport counter.

 

For more, read Baseline’s Top 10 Business Trends of2012.