Cloud Trends: The Evolution of Vertically Targeted Public Clouds

Clouds today are not what clouds will be tomorrow. As the technology of clouds evolve, clouds will become more tailored  to the needs of specific consumer groups, specific professional groups and specific industries and markets.

Vertical marketing of cloud technology will bring about vertical branding of clouds. Google Home is one indicator of this trend. Google Home is a cloud platform that is geared for the home, the home consumer.  Saleforce.com , with the promotion of its Health Cloud, is another example of a vertical cloud marketing trend. Other cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure, IBM, HP  and Rackspace will more than likely join in this trend, if they already have not.

Today though, companies, professionals, and consumers for the most part must still sort through an ocean of IT jargon to determine what cloud provider actually can fill their specific cloud computing, service and software needs.  Those who are knew to cloud technology, and are not IT professionals, are forced to learn the meaning of unfamiliar terms such as  Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and so on and so on.

These terms baffle many and are not conducive to making sales to companies that simply want to know what the cloud means to their professional lives and business organizations.  A vertical marketing approach that uses terms that are familiar to specific types of professionals and businesses, and avoids terms that are IT professional centric  may well be a better way to educate target markets about the cloud and generate market  interest.  IT centric words, still, have their place. After all its IT departments and CIOs that actually make cloud buying decisions. As well, it is the IT staff that evaluates a cloud provider based on network metrics such as computer time, hardware allocation capability, security and optimization capabilities.

Cloud vertical marketing will open the way to a more highly competitive market. For example, there is little doubt that  a biotechnology company would prefer to go to a cloud provider that focuses on biotechnology business and scientific needs than  just an everyday generic cloud provider  The ideal biotechnology cloud provider would specialize in high-powered genetic SaaS,  databases specific to the needs of biotechnology companies, hardware configurations that are optimized for intensive genome calculations and even have PaaS specifically made for the development of biotech software. All of which would help reduce not only operating costs of biotechnology companies but reduce the cost of market entry.

The list of vertical clouds is as endless as the number of different business markets. For example, automotive clouds, agricultural clouds, transportation clouds, logistics clouds, integrated circuit clouds to name just a few possibilities. . This means that there is  plenty of work for cloud providers to do. And it means that the ones that do this vertical work will end up with major market shares in specific and lucrative vertical cloud markets.

What is a cloud computing platform?

The definition of a cloud computing platform expands and changes with time. How can it not?  Cloud computing extends over the never-ending and evolving expanse of computer architecture and technology. Instead of trying to define a cloud computing platform in a narrow domain,  a broader definition is needed: A cloud computing platform is a human and computer accessible network of configurable computer hardware components and interconnected software applications.

A cloud computing platform may also be viewed as a user-accessible data center in which a user can control, apply and configure for what ever purpose they see fit. Cloud computer platforms can be public, meaning that a business or the general public can buy a subscription to access it. Cloud computer platforms can also be private  This meaning that only a select group of people can access it. For example, many governments and companies have private cloud computing platforms. Finally, a cloud computing platform can be a hybrid. A hybrid cloud computing platform is in general a private cloud platform that can be configured to interact with a public computer platform.

For the real business world, and the world of cloud service providers, cloud platforms are classified into more specific categories. There are for example, PaaS platforms also known as Platforms as a Service. These cloud platforms are targeted at software developers. Software developers that want to develop specific applications, built with specific programming languages, such as Java, PHP or Ruby, are the end-users of PaaS cloud platforms.  Developers often prefer PaaS platforms over in-house software development platforms. This is because a PaaS cloud platform provides an unlimited number of processors, servers, data storage, operating systems, and applications specific development software and tools to create their application in.

For a business or consumer, a cloud platform often means a place to store data.  It can also mean a place where different software programs can be accessed. For a company, a cloud platform is a place where all members of the company can access software programs, store files and share information with others.  For companies that don't want to have the hardware and software needed for a cloud on-site (a private cloud), they are more and more often,selecting a public cloud computing platform for their entire company. If the right type of public cloud  or clouds are chosen, this can often mean significant savings for the company.  And this is because, with the right type of clouds, a company no longer has to support in-house hardware and software upgrades for all the members of the company.

Learning Links

Nine Cloud Development Platforms on the Rise, InfoWorld
Debating the Definition of Cloud Computing Platforms, Forbes
The 20 Coolest Cloud Platforms & Vendors, CRN
A Short Introduction to Cloud Platforms, An Enterprise Oriented View, Chapman and Associates
What is PaaS?, Microsoft