Future Trends
Looking down the road, many industry observers expect that 80/20 rule to be flipped on its head as cloud computing for content becomes more accepted. Newstex’s Schwartz says, "This is a major industry trend." He expects his own company to be fully deployed on the cloud within the next 2 years. MuseGlobal’s Noerr concurs, saying, "The 80/20 rule is going to change, and not too long from now."
As acceptance of content clouds picks up speed, SpringCM’s Carmel predicts that consolidated platforms will emerge. "It’s expensive to vet multiple vendors for SaaS. At SpringCM, we are trying to address multiple needs in one place so that it is cheaper to vet, easier to integrate, and more efficient to perform compliance." Carmel’s observation seems supported by Google Apps’ continued expansion of its product offerings to include features such as voice and video chats and Salesforce for Google Apps. Blossom calls this "the race to the middle. Amazon used to offer mostly infrastructure services, but now it’s moving into content applications as well."
Publishers will also continue to experiment with new revenue streams enabled by cloud technology, such as widgets, meters, and advertising. The Times’ Frons says, "Publishers and media companies are going to figure out more creative ways to monetize their advertising and licensing."
More stringent security standards and solutions seem sure to emerge as well, which will enable cross-pollination between clouds and lure wary IT managers off the bench. And as cost savings are realized and security standards codified, expect the acceleration of acceptance of cloud computing to grow. Blossom says, "If you think things have been changing fast, well, hold on to your hat."
Companies featured in this article:
Amazon.com
www.amazon.com
Dow Jones Business & Relationship Intelligence
www.generateinc.com
eBay, Inc.
www.ebay.com
Google
www.google.com
Mark Logic
www.marklogic.com
MuseGlobal, Inc.
www.museglobal.com
The New York Times Co.
www.nytimes.com
Newstex, LLC
www.newstex.com
Shore Communications, Inc.
www.shore.com
Smart Online, Inc.
www.smartonline.com
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
www.siia.net
SpringCM
www.springcm.com
Symplified, Inc.
www.symplified.com
Xeround
www.xeround.com