The cloud is no longer a buzzword; the buzz around it has settled and the haze almost cleared. Now everyone wants to get aboard notwithstanding the fact that there are still some reservations about total acceptance. As IT demands increase, cloud computing has grown proportionately and its popularity is rubbing off on IT professionals.

According to TelecomTiger, Chris Howard, research vice president at Gartner (News - Alert) attributed this growing trend to the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing, which enables customers to provision their resources and pay only for what they need, when they need it. This complete freedom to utilize resources as and when required, more economically, has indeed added a new perspective to the cloud.  

Howard also adds that businesses today have more say on how they'll acquire or deliver IT services without the hurdles associated with software and hardware licensing models. Hence, cloud deployments offer an easy way to conduct business without having to think about extra hardware or software.

"Services delivered through the cloud will foster an economy based on delivery and consumption of everything from storage to computation to video to finance deduction management," said Howard.

Enterprises have also gotten more particular about the kind of cloud they use for their data. They want low-cost options but also want to remain secure. So we are seeing a transition from public and private clouds to the hybrid version. In fact, Gartner predicts that 2016 will be a defining moment for the industry as the private cloud gives way to more hybrid models.

David Linthicum, in an InfoWorld article agrees with Gartner to the extent that there could indeed be a sharp increase in the migration of business apps to cloud platforms. However, he notes that the push to pursue cloud deployments will largely come from businesses, rather than IT. Also, rather than enterprises moving towards a hybrid cloud model, the IT environment of enterprises will be more of a "multicloud reality," with a mix of both private and hybrid models.

As cloud computing strategies gather momentum, Telecom Tiger advocates the use of  two IT-centric work streams: one to focus on the when, where, why and how cloud services should be deployed, while the other stream needed to concentrate on how hardware, software and processes are used to implement cloud services.