According to a recent Gartner research report, cloud computing is gaining popularity across a variety of industries for basic business support functions. The research shows that cloud computing is being used for more than just IT functions. In fact, many industries are now viewing cloud computing in the context of how it can help them succeed in an evolving marketplace.
Regulated Industries and Cloud Computing
According to the research, regulated industries like banking and insurance are more hesitant to expand their cloud initiatives to serve competitive functions.
- Insurance: Private clouds are preferred because they’re more secure than public clouds. However, it’s expected that by 2015, industry association community clouds will increase in popularity.
- Banking: In the banking industry, the main concern is that a cloud environment is not secure enough. This is why this particular industry uses the cloud for administrative functions like email, file sharing and sharing of notes.
- Government: While opportunities to use cloud computing in a variety of ways do exist, it’s also misunderstood. Today, the biggest opportunities are in public cloud computing, but many in this industry fear security problems.
Unregulated Industries and Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, both public and private, is used far more in industries that aren’t quite as regulated. Here are some of the ways these industries are using cloud computing.
- Retail: In this industry, cloud implementations have been mostly IaaS or PaaS solutions. Security, availability and vendor maturity are all aspects that retailers consider when deciding which functions they want deployed from the cloud.
- Media: Audiences today can access content of any form in a variety of ways. This is why service providers and application developers are exploring a cloud-based vision way to enable multi-screen entertainment.
- Manufacturing: This industry uses the cloud for logistics, sales support functions, HR, product development and life cycle management, as well as some manufacturing operations.
Cloud computing adoption varies from industry to industry because of the different levels of security and other features required by them. Learn how Expedient can help you with your specific cloud computing needs.
