Will New Types of Cloud Apps Spike Bandwidth Demands? Better Not Bet On That

Brian Washburn

Summary Bullets:

• New innovations in cloud services are mostly bandwidth conservative: basics such as video streaming and a richer web are demand drivers.
• If you must bet on where your company’s future networking demands will come from, look at existing app types, not revolutionary cloud apps.

We’ve all seen Internet traffic growth statistics: those ‘hockey stick’ charts aren’t doubling every year anymore.  However, given the enormity of today’s traffic volumes, a sustainable compound annual growth rates of 23% (such as projected by Cisco Systems) still makes for mind-boggling increases.  VoIP, video (streaming and conferencing), richer web experiences, mobile devices, M2M: there’s always a new device or application to fuel traffic demand.  Enterprise buyers end up in a rough equilibrium; every year, bandwidth prices go down, but Internet/WAN traffic goes up and the overall contract remains roughly stable.

Moving to the Cloud Doesn’t Eliminate the Need for Integrated IT Services

John Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• With IT infrastructure being virtualized and moved off-premises into the cloud in an effort to manage fixed costs, IT organizations – including outsourced resources – will inevitably shrink.  Automation cannot replace everything, however, so enterprises should continue to keep their IT service providers around.
• Services integration may be the latest buzzword among key providers, but it makes sense to use an IT integrator to help navigate the simultaneous complexities of cloud migration, internal downsizing, use case development, and tactical IT purchasing.  Knowledge of the business environment is an invaluable differentiator for in-house IT providers and they should capitalize on this to remain relevant.

As IT resources move off-premises into the cloud, IT organizations on-premises will get smaller.  External services will replace those resources, but the expectation is that this will be achieved by increased automation via the cloud.  So, on the one hand, enterprise services will need to replace management functions formerly offered by in-house IT, but on the other hand, do it more efficiently than traditional outsourcing.  The pressure will be on IT service providers to take more responsibility, for potentially smaller contracts, from increasingly demanding customers.