The IT industry goes through innovation shifts on a frequent basis.
From mainframes to client-server architectures to the Internet explosion, the pace of change is relentless.
Currently the industry is going through yet another paradigm shift. This time the driver is a five-headed hydra: cloud, social, mobile, big data and consumerization. Analyst group IDC calls these dynamics “the third platform1 ” and Gartner refers to them as the “nexus of forces.2 ”
The cloud offers the promise of unlimited and on-demand computing power. Social networking provides the ability to collaborate across borders through hierarchies and via suppliers.
Mobile computing embodies the anywhere, anytime information society. Big data stands for additional insight from new information footprints.
Consumerization is the penetration of the consumer experience into the enterprise and into business application design.
This white paper is presented in the context of these dynamics. By reading it, you’ll learn more about the cloud proposition and gain a business perspective of what it means to consume software in the cloud.