2011: the cloud has landed. Looking back on 2011, what stands out most of all is that the cloud became mainstream.
Cloud computing even got its own Gartner hype cycle, and while some aspects of the technology are still deemed to be in the early wave of the cycle, others are far beyond any hype. Indeed, SaaS is so well established today that Gartner positions it firmly on the 'slope of enlightment', well on the way to achieving productive enterprise adoption. No wonder Oracle rushed to purchase RightNow as the year drew to a close, swiftly followed by SAP's acquisition of Successfactors.
It's extraordinary to look back at the predictions I made at the turn of the year to see just how far we've come. With hindsight, it seems self-evident that mobile and social would become core to enterprise software strategies, and yet a year ago, it was still a novelty to suggest either. Cloud Computing Channel. Cloud computing.