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optimise operating costs, with modern, largely standardised software
applications installed. They are capable of providing multiple and diverse
customers in neatly separate data spaces with virtually the same
functionality delivered over the Internet. Customers can then access their
Cloud services no matter where they are in the world, completely
independent of what equipment they use. It almost goes without saying that
the software is kept up to date, so that customers always have the most
current software version at their disposal, without having to worry
themselves with administration tasks. What level of security and diligence is
required from professional Cloud service providers must be kept in clear
focus.
Today, software is also developed in the Cloud, in what are known as
developer Clouds. This also opens up considerable savings potential for
software companies, because costly investments in development and test
environments can be omitted and replaced by a temporary rental instead.
So today it is much easier for start‐up companies to implement new IT based
solutions than in the past, where the investment in computers for
development often proved to be an insurmountable hurdle.
The Internet of things
Developer Clouds play a crucial role in the megatrend of the future, the
Internet of things.
The market research institute IDC, in a 2011 study commissioned by EMC,
determined that the current amount of data stored on the Internet amounts
to 1.8 Zetabytes (Zetabyte = 10
21
bytes
,
a 1 with 21 zeros). The same study
predicts growth by a factor of 160 to 320 Zetabytes by the year 2020, which
represents a twentyfold increase each year.
Whether you believe this prediction or not, it remains out of the question,
that in the next few years the growth will be nearly exponential. The reasons
for this can already be identified today. On one hand, the volume of data
stored in the private sector will increase. Thanks to mobile devices, photo
and video data can be quickly recorded and reproduced, despite being very
memory‐intensive. In addition, digital television gives us the ability start a
film at any time, instead of having to be sitting in front of the television
punctually.
In business there are also factors contributing to the aforementioned data
growth, because more and more devices and machines are connected to the
Internet. With this comes a massive demand for new applications, which in
turn will be developed in developer Clouds. And because their development
