One of the biggest steps forward in technology has been the onset of cloud computing, which levels the playing field for businesses by offering new agility and scalability not obtainable with on-premise computing.
Cloud is not only good for business, but it’s turning out to be a good opportunity for investors based on current and predicted adoption trends, according to a recent NASDAQ blog post.
“As more and more businesses seek to stand out from their competition, they are in search of providers of this cloud computing technology that allows access to data and applications from anywhere in the world – and they can oftentimes find it from small, yet powerful sources,” the post said.
Large cap cloud computing providers Amazon and Microsoft (News - Alert) are poised to provide huge value to investors – especially if you consider the numbers.
As of late 2011, Amazon had over 1.5 billion items in its retail catalog - and with 200+ fulfillment centers worldwide, Amazon has lots to keep track of. Cloud computing technology has allowed Amazon to seamlessly make in excess of 50 million updates to its catalog each week, the blog noted.
In addition, Microsoft – a clear leader in cloud computing – has taken the approach of helping their own customers in taking a big step towards redefining the overall role that IT plays in implementing the strategy of a business.
As of the third quarter 2012, Microsoft reported a market cap of nearly $237.5 billion, and earnings per share of 1.85, according to NASDAQ.
And then there are smaller players, such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) company Younicycle, which helps developers to collaborate online through use of fully integrated cloud services.
Given the many cloud business opportunities on the market today – including small cloud service providers – they are bringing new benefits to their own companies as well as to their investors.
In related news, CenturyLink is set to address the increased demand for a simplified approach to cloud computing with the upcoming launch of savvisdirect, which is currently in public beta test. Savvisdirect will also expand CenturyLink’s portfolio of Savvis cloud services to businesses of all sizes, TMCnet reported.
CenturyLink claims its upcoming savvisdirect will offer highly scalable, affordable and easy-to-use cloud services for business users, IT administrators and developers.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli