15 Jun 2010

Cloud computing 'to step up by 2020'

Cloud computing is predicted to have permeated all levels of business IT infrastructure by the end of the decade.

According to the Internet and American Life Project by the Pew Research Center, 72 per cent of respondents felt businesses will be much more reliant on smartphone and cloud applications to carry out their work by 2020.

Indeed, key drivers will include growing data availability and the flexibility to work on the move and outside the office, the report claimed.

"By 2020, the norm will be pocket, powerful computer devices that are networks and utilising data and applications from the cloud," said Robert Cannon, senior counsel for internet law at the Federal Communications Commission in the US.

Elsewhere, Chris Morris, research director for cloud technologies and services at IDC Asia/Pacific, recently said cloud computing continues to gain popularity with businesses around the world and he expects to see a ten per cent rise in the uptake of the technology over the next four years.