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Cloud computing services have captured consumers. From commercials during Monday Night Football ordering viewers "to the cloud" to tech giants like Apple pulling the curtain off of its iCloud service, which is sure to be a massive consumer hit, consumers can't escape the cloud.
And as the consumerization of IT continues to unfold, these consumer-focused cloud services will likely make their way into the business world -- like it or not. Much like Apple's iPhone and iPad infiltrate businesses, and the continuing onslaught of smartphones and tablets breaking through enterprise walls, cloud apps aren't too far behind.
In fact, a recent survey by cloud sync solutions player Funambol found that 72 percent of users will leverage personal, or consumer, cloud services for both business and personal use, while only 26 percent said they would use cloud services only for their personal data.
"I think that the consumer invasion from a product standpoint started this," said Aric Bandy, CEO of Agosto, a Minneapolis-based cloud solution provider, citing the iPhone and iPad as the main offenders that acted as a catalyst for consumer cloud services to reach businesses. "Cloud solutions are riding in on their coattails."
This bleeding over of consumer cloud tools into business stems from many users and employees rebelling against their IT departments and getting the services and products they require on their own instead of waiting for the IT department to provide.
And for solution providers, this rebellious spirit could create a new set of opportunities around cloud offerings that were once aimed squarely at consumers.
Bandy pointed to a cloud backup utility called CrashPlan, which got its start as a strictly consumer play and made headway into the enterprise by providing a necessary service that people were using on their own and installing on their work machines. From there, it exploded, and CrashPlan launched a full-fledged enterprise edition to give businesses and solution providers the ability to control it and manage it in-house.
Salesforce.com is also credited with creating this sort of model, but in business, by going around IT departments and selling directly to sales teams to get its portfolio of SaaS and cloud offerings into the enterprise.
Next: Consumer And Business Clouds Merging
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