One technology that has had a great impact in 2013 was cloud computing. Close to 60 percent of SMBs now use cloud services, while 72 percent have virtualized a large percentage of their servers. The coming year is expected to be even bigger for cloud technology as it continues expanding with infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and other services. As it is customary when a year is about to come to an end, experts across every technological field make their predictions as to the most likely development to occur for the coming year. So here are some developments that will take place in cloud computing for 2014.

The impact of cloud computing is not limited to one industry or sector. Whether it is startups or established enterprises, this technology is introducing a new level of efficiency, innovation and customer service around the world.

One way to make the workforce of an organization more efficient is by having the content they need wherever they go. Cloud will more than ever change how everyone interacts with their mobile device. By eliminating the need to store the content on the device and making it available in the cloud, everyone from students to CEOs will always have the information they need at their fingertips. The evolution of moving content to the cloud will not be limited to just computing devices. Smart TVs and automobiles will also be able to access cloud content to give consumers the information and entertainment they want anytime/anywhere.

The issue of public and private cloud architecture in enterprise IT will not be as significant as in the past. Hybrid cloud, which combines the best options of both architectures, is increasingly becoming the preferred cloud solution for organizations. A forecast by Gartner (News - Alert) earlier this year said by 2017 half of all large enterprises will be adopting the hybrid cloud model. This will enable organizations to scale up or down as market opportunities dictate. However, most experts agree the move to hybrid cloud technology is taking place now and the coming year happening much sooner than 2017.

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The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be partly determined by cloud technology. The combination of intelligent machines, big data analytics, and end-user applications is going to be mainly developed and managed on cloud infrastructure. This technology is going to be driven, operated and controlled by intelligent and software-defined machines wholly from centralized and remote locations, and cloud will play a great role.

In the past, creating high-end graphics meant powerful computers with a lot of memory, which priced out many small businesses and individuals. Graphics as a Service is going to change all that with a cloud-based graphics technology from AMD and NVIDIA (News - Alert). With this service, users will be able to run graphically intense applications with just their Web browser and HTML5. Additionally, Web-based powered applications will continue to increase by taking advantage of cloud computing and developing applications that are platform agnostic; eliminating compatibility issues that has plagued virtually everyone in the past.

As cloud computing technology keeps developing further, security will continue to be an issue and the industry will have to create a cloud identity management solution. The implementation of BYOD and SaaS by enterprises means controlling who has access to what, which makes the process more complicated and potentially very dangerous.