By 2014, more than 130 million enterprise users will tap into the cloud to obtain, run, power or manage their mobile application, according to a new report by Juniper Research. Just who’s responsible for the coming surge may surprise you.
The surge will be driven by maturing mobile-friendly platform as a service (PaaS) offerings from Google, Microsoft and an innovative company known for breaking-the-mold for mobile devices.
Juniper’s Mobile Cloud Applications research also states the success of Apple’s iPhone and App Store has helped acceptance of business use of mobile apps and devices, or what Juniper calls the “connected enterprise applications” market. Apple’s work with the device and the download store has driven the variety, volume, usability, and utility of mobile apps.
“A cloud-based ecosystem for enterprise apps will be attractive both for developers and enterprises alike,” said Windsor Holden, the author of Juniper’s report, in a statement. “For developers, cloud opens up a far wider potential audience for their products. [F]or enterprise customers, outsourcing application management to a remote third-party, [with projected costs based on] on a scalable, pay-per-use basis, offers far more flexibility combined with a significant reduction in capital expenditure.”
Further, devs and ISVs looking to save money porting apps across multiple platforms will find a wider array of APIs from cloud providers that support browser-based or thin client applications, Holden also found.
Other findings from Juniper’s report Mobile Cloud Applications include:
- Storage and infrastructure vendors can take advantage of cloud computing to develop mobile cloud-based applications
- Enterprise users will generate the vast majority cloud-based application revenue over the next five years. But, by 2014 consumer applications (games, social networks and music services) will top more than 25% of these revenues.
In Jan 2010, Juniper issued a related report which projected annual revenues from cloud-based mobile applications will reach nearly $9.5 billion by 2014. Among drivers for the revenue, the research firm pointed to: the need for converged, collaborative services; further widespread adoption of mobile broadband services; and deployment of key technological enablers (including HTML5 and the Open Mobile Alliance’s Smart Card Web Server.
source: Juniper Research