Four major trends in IT development in 2017 & three major predictions for cloud computing

For most people, predicting the future is extremely challenging. However, people always enjoy focusing on what will happen in the future. In the IT field, people also like to pay attention to trend development. As we reach the end of 2014, it's time to predict the IT development trends for the new year. So, although it's a difficult thing to predict, we should still try to learn more about industry development trends, in order to provide a good viewing platform for netizens who are interested in industry development.

It seems unbelievable that we are running out of storage space on our disks. However, it is a fact that storage space is facing challenges nowadays. With the advent of the big data era, data is exploding. In 2013, the world generated 3.5 zettabytes of data, and by 2020, this figure will have grown more than tenfold. Unfortunately, this rate will outpace the production of storage products.

Data is experiencing explosive growth, yet the capacity of hard drives to store data has not increased rapidly. In the field of storage, its development has not been swift. In recent years, emerging technologies have primarily focused on increasing storage speed, but the development of technologies to increase hard drive capacity has been very slow. Nowadays, many manufacturers have realized that high-capacity hard drives also constitute a huge market. However, technological research and development require time, and distant water cannot quench a nearby thirst. People may face challenges in data storage.

2. Big data drives the emergence of tiered storage. For consumers, the increase in data capacity does not have much impact on them. For example, watching TV and storing photos do not take up much space. However, more and more enterprises are relying on so-called big data analysis to promote their businesses, and they face a huge threat. Traditional data storage methods can no longer meet the needs of such businesses.

To address this issue, a new technology is currently driving the development of storage, namely intelligent tiered technology. Through the integration of SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), and HDD (Hard Disk Drive), users can effectively store data by placing different levels of data on different types of drives. In 2015, this trend will be utilized to construct more data centers.

3. An inevitable consequence of the explosion of privacy-protected data is that everyone's data will be collected or utilized. Consumers' data, whether they are browsing content online or purchasing products, is controlled by some institutions. In 2014, the European Union has legislated on data privacy.

Such legislation is beneficial for data privacy, as everyone's data is a very important thing. For some people with ulterior motives, they can commit various crimes by exploiting a person's left data. Moreover, such crimes are more targeted and more likely to cause serious consequences. In 2015, there will be more and more data protection measures aimed at privacy.

The era of hybrid cloud is upon us

Cloud computing may be the mainstream of the future, but it is still in its early stages and has not yet evolved into a fully mature business platform. Many enterprises have found that the private clouds they built in the early days have reached their capacity limits. They are forced to extend their businesses to the public cloud, which gives rise to the hybrid cloud.

The emergence of this hybrid cloud will likely become the mainstream approach adopted by enterprises in 2015. With the development of cloud computing technology and security, this hybrid cloud approach will gradually gain popularity among enterprises. It not only provides secure storage but also offers wireless scalability, making it a mainstream approach for the foreseeable future.