Is It Getting Cloudier?

In an earlier post I described cloud data storage as an introduction to what can be used for remote document access and how it can be crucial in starting a business. Now you may be asking, ”He’s not going talk about clouds more is he?”  Well excuse me while I kiss the sky but cloud data storage is an immensely larger topic than just accessing your Rolodex and calendar.  In fact, you could say it is the future of business.

While researching data clouds I ran across a several articles that all fell together like pieces in a puzzle.  A theme I discovered centered around starting a business or career that would prove to be lucrative and in great demand.

The first was 3-D Printing, either as a start-up company or as an engineer.  This is an industry that has only just scraped the surface of it’s potential.  Regarding future engineers one article talked about how these companies are going to need people who can design and maintain the printers.  The article was very clear when it said, “A lot of things they’ll be printing will be expensive so the wages you’ll receive will be very generous.”

As a start-up, another article looked at forecasts for the industry as a whole. By 2017 it could hit $6 billion worldwide and $11 billion by 2021, and this is after already seeing growth of 28.6% in 2012 alone.  Companies are already obtaining funding by crowdsourcing and the industry could literally become filled with businesses that started in the garage only to become a 3-D printing monster, figuratively speaking of course. Personally I’m waiting to see if someone designs a 3-D printer that produces more 3-D printers.

Ok, but what about the clouds?  Cloud data storage will be essential here as engineers need to share information across companies and start-ups begin to expand.

The next theme was Online Teaching.  As a career the specialist teacher is in growing demand as “millions of people want to learn about specialist subjects.”  The teacher in the brick and mortar classroom could change to become the one in a “flipped classroom” and bump their income dramatically in some cases.

As a start-up “ed-tech companies explicitly seek to dismantle traditional education structures.” The question of funding, as of right now, is taken off the table if you have a quality idea and business model.  Names like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are only the most well known among the numerous parties wanting to get behind great ideas.

As for the clouds, well none of these can even take the first step if students can’t get materials or if a company can’t share their data.  This will prove to be a booming industry not only for getting to students but the development of education apps will also grow in the flipped classroom but probably ever more so in the traditional setting.

The last thread is about producing the clouds themselves.  The cloud data storage as a start-up is an exciting and potentially huge next step.  Consider the question, as industries migrate to cloud data storage what will they do about securing their information?

In comes the newest product, Virtual Data Rooms.  “Think souped-up versions of Dropbox for the corporate user.”  VDR’s allow companies a much more secure lock on their information and records by the ability to set different levels of access whether it’s to the customers or the different levels of their own management team.

VDR’s as an industry is only going to expand, according to IBIS, from the $628 million in 2012 to $1.2 trillion by 2017.  The costs center around the quality of your IT team and software you design.  Capital is definitely out there seeking investment into companies since the primary industries interested right now are banking and law.

Right now the industry is very competitive and dominated by the giants like Google and Microsoft but for the futurists out there, the true size and scope of this market will allow for very successful niches to be carved out.

This is just the first look at what’s being done in what we’ll call the Cloud Industry.  Going forward we’ll discuss some of the current success stories of individuals and companies and try to find more common threads and trends.

The future of technology is indeed built within the clouds.