This is a must have for all businesses in 2013, as numbers of cloud adopters have increased continuosly since 2009, bringing the worlwide cloud industry an estimated revenue of over 44.2 billion $ this year. Cloud adoption should happen for you, believes Ben Dobel editor at Small Business.

Cloud adoption is not for all, explains Sebastian Nemcek at Start2Cloud who advices caution when choosing your deployment method and explains both the benefits but also the disadvantages from cloud computing. “Making a wrong choice of model will lead to higher costs due to the complicated integration, insufficient security, or high maintenance costs compared to the other option”, writes Nemcek.

So what exactly are the do's and don'ts in terms of cloud adoption and, most importantly what's in it for you? Should you adopt a cloud of your own today or simply look away?

Going up

Cloud adoption is going up, is a fact shown in a survey conducted by Spiceworks. Cloud computing is used by 62 percent of the 1,356 IT professionals in 100 countries, surveyed at the end of last year, compared with 48% in the first half of 2012, shows Heather Clancy in an article for Zdnet.

What's bought

Applications are the most bought cloud service today, followed by infrastructure software and storage of data, next on the usual shopping list. Servers and app/dev deploy, are last, according to a study made by IDC Services.

Who's buying

The U.S. in particular, with Europe following their lead. “Despite preparedness, Australia holds back on cloud adoption. Australia who was noted as the second most prepared nation for Cloud technologies in the world, second only to Japan”, writes Mark McWilliams from Abc Net. Still

What they love about cloud

As the results of the Spiceworks survey reveal, the flexibility and scalability that the cloud can provide are seen as most beneficial to potential users. Cloud computing means storing as much or as little data you need and paying accordingly. Also, there is also no need for continuous upgrading of hardware as the cloud lets you work without limitation of space. Eliminating the cost of standalone software or servers makes cloud a cost efficient solution.

What is cloud bad at

Security and possession of data are the biggest concerns, deriving one from another when it comes to cloud computing. The limited control over the function and execution of the hardware and software are other disadvantages pointed out by Ilias Tsagklis from Java Code Geeks.

That and the fact that many countries in Europe, but also Australia have instated conflicting policies surrounding data security and privacy don't make things easier. For Australian businesses, storing cloud also means storing oceans away.

An interesting fact is that the National Institutes of Health(NIH) of USA will move the world’s largest set of data on human genetic variation into public cloud infrastructure. This data set measures 200 terabytes (equivalent to approximately 16 million file cabinets filled with text or more than 30,000 standard DVDs), a size too big for most researchers to make use of.

Have your say!

So what do you think? Cloud computing is the future in terms of methods of deployment? Would you adopt one to call your own or wait for the next best thing?

Photo credit : It Knowledge Exchange