Today’s guest post is by Jessica Reich. Jessica is a freelance writer from Minneapolis

To say that the cloud computing industry is experiencing rapid growth is the understatement of the century. What started with a three-model approach—Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)—now features several different cloud computing models over a wide range of IT disciplines. Back in 2010 the cloud computing industry was worth roughly $40 billion. By 2020, according to a recent study by Forrester Research, the cloud computing industry is expected to grow to over $240 billion.

Within the cloud computing space, cloud storage and backup services are among the most popular. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of cloud storage and backup services are built on the SaaS model, which the Forrester study cites as the cloud computing model with the most growth potential.

Top Three Cloud Storage & Backup Trends in 2013

 

More cloud-based subscription models: On the enterprise level, most companies are still in the early adoption phase. These companies, especially within its IT departments, are skeptical of cloud services and the benefits they offer. 2013 will see an increase of cloud-based subscription models — specifically from storage and backup providers — for enterprise-level organization all over the globe.


Disaster recovery in the cloud: According to Henrik Rosendahl, Senior Vice President of Cloud Solutions at Quantum, disaster recovery in the cloud is increasingly becoming a viable best practice for the enterprise. Cloud-based disaster recovery is among the easiest and most affordable ways to offload disaster recovery plans without purchasing physical offsite servers.


Cloud-based de-dupe and data protection: A big piece of the new era of cloud backup will mean de-duplicating mission/business-critical data before it is sent to a cloud service. This offers a new cost-effective level of data protection for enterprise-class organizations and small businesses alike. In fact, cloud-based backup providers that aren’t optimized for de-duplication will find it harder to compete in the cloud storage space.

 

Cloud Storage & Backup Benefits

 

Reduced Costs: In the old days when a company managed data in-house, there were hosts of major expenses related to purchasing networking equipment and servers. Beyond that, the IT department was traditionally tasked with managing, updating and servicing this equipment. All of that responsibility and cost is off loaded to the cloud provider. According to CloudStorageFinder.com, some companies charge more for its cloud backup service, but some rank high in value for money, making costs more important.


Flexibility: The bulk of these cloud storage and backup services are offered on a pay-as-you-go, subscription basis. This frees you up from being locked into a relationship with a cloud vendor, and you only pay for what you use.


Boosted Productivity: Cloud storage and backup gives you access to a wide range of productivity tools that increase your ability to be productive. Off loading the backup and storage process to a third-party provider frees you up to focus on business-specific processes.