Substantial cloud computing growth predicted

Substantial cloud computing growth predicted

Cloud computing has been predicted to grow substantially over the coming years in the inaugural Cisco Cloud Index.

Between 2010 and 2015, Cisco estimated that cloud computing traffic will grow 12-fold from 130 exabytes to around 1.6 zettabytes a year by the end of the five-year period. This represents a 66 per cent compound annual growth rate, making cloud the fastest growing component of data centre traffic.

In fact, cloud computing is already estimated to represent around 11 per cent of data centre traffic, but by the end of the study period it is predicted to account for more than a third of the total.

Suraj Shetty, vice-president of products and solutions marketing at Cisco, commented: “Cloud and data centre traffic is exploding, driven by user demand to access volumes of content on the devices of their choice. The result: greater data centre virtualisation and relevance of the network for cloud applications and the need to make sense of a dynamically evolving situation.”

He added that the Cisco index is partly designed to improve the level of 'cloud readiness' around the world as people start to learn more about the new technology.

However, not everywhere is prepared. At the moment all of the international regions included in the study were found to be ready for basic cloud computing applications, such as web conferences and social networking.

But intermediate applications, such as video chat and high-definition video streaming, were only deemed to be average in the majority of areas. Furthermore, no region was found to be able to support advanced cloud capabilities, although certain select countries were able to do so, including South Korea and Japan.

Business and organisations that want to ensure they are ready to switch to cloud computing can look into leased lines to improve the state of their networks.