Since Claranet was founded nearly twenty years ago, it has undergone a transformation from a small consumer internet service provider, to one of Europe’s leading IT managed services providers.
But the IT market never stands still.
Here are the top four ways we see the hosting market evolving in the short- to medium-term:
1) Shift to an application-first world
Four key ways in which the hosting market is changing | Claranet UK
We’re in the middle of a software revolution. As software steadily becomes the centerpiece of businesses in every industry, the IT is coming under pressure to deploy, update and deliver applications more efficiently, but with less time, money and resources.
We see the market for hosting services shifting to place much greater focus on the application, with infrastructure platforms transforming to become a vehicle for software delivery, rather than a primary concern for organisations in and of themselves.
2) The rise of agility and hybridity
Customer expectations of the availability, performance and security of applications and data are rising fast. And downtime can cost businesses on average $5,600 a minute. [1]
This has fomented a trend towards greater agility of infrastructure and hybrid delivery models, which utilise a range of different cloud platforms to deliver flexible support that is tailored to the needs of critical applications.
But as applications and data are recognised as the chief intellectual property of an organisation, agility and performance cannot be promoted at the cost of security, both in the sense of protection from cyber-attacks, such as Denial-of-Service attacks, and in terms the resilience of the physical server location.
Striking a happy balance will be a key task for the industry over the coming years.
3) Favouring a service-led approach
With data and applications becoming mobile, and possibilities of the cloud diverging endlessly, we are heading towards a world in which businesses inhabit diverse cloud ecosystems, made up of private, hybrid and public clouds. When there are so many options, the service quality and capability become the key component in the selection of hosting platforms.
This has created a trend towards a service-led, user-centric approach that will help organisations to provide the agility that their applications require, hosting them on the right environment for their needs, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.
4) Enhanced privacy and security
As infrastructure platforms continue cross borders to span countries or continents, data, and its attendant privacy- and security-related legal restraints, is beginning to come to the forefront of market attention.
At the same time, the EU is driving towards legislation governing the protection of data, intellectual property, and associated privacy concerns.
This is driving strict compliancy and robust security measures in hosting services across the board. Which is why security is now the number one priority for the cloud industry.
Hosting transformation
As the hosting industry becomes increasingly diverse, it is agility, security and high-quality service that will stand out from the crowd.
At Claranet, we strive to be the most trusted managed services partner in Europe. Get in touch to find out how our hosting services can help you do amazing things.