Five trends that will dominate the "cloud" in 2012

2011 has been an exciting year for the cloud. Companies are starting to accept the idea of using internet-based services instead of servers they control themselves. That in turn has driven a push to make the technologies more mature — and the tech companies making those technologies are growing up too.

Banner year for cloud technologies

2012 will be a banner year for cloud technologies, from real business models that don't just push free products to developing the way companies use the cloud to enable better and smarter ways to work.

2012 is going to be all about how those slick devices we already use to read the news and watch movies will shift to become real business tools. And it's going to be executives who will drive their use in the workplace. When the person in charge sees how useful something can be, they'll make sure it gets accepted.

Cloud technologies are key to making tablets into useful business tools. Because tablets lack the storage and processing power of full-blown computers, they depend on internet-based computing resources. Cloud services as well enable employees and executives to use whatever devices they want: As long as it has a browser, it can work with the cloud.

The end user might not pay

While the end user might not pay, there are enormous costs for businesses who have to support the patchwork of mediocre products designed only to solve one person's problem, not solve an organizational problem. Not to mention the fact that it isn't a sustainable business model — designed only to pump up the numbers and give the appearance of size. Didn't we learn from the first dot com bubble?

We dropped the "p" from cloud computing because today’s office doesn’t have to be four walls and a water cooler. To tell the truth, the cloud lets you sit in meetings, take calls and read endless email strings you’ve been copied on just like you’re in your cube. Between cheaper mobile devices, better productivity apps, easy internet access and acceptance of the cloud as a part of the corporate infrastructure, employers and employees can save corporations time, money and resources, with the added bonus of helping save the world by staying off the roads.