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The range of cloud computing services open to enterprises is increasing. This tendency will become more pronounced as additional cloud management options are brought into play. Enterprises that have not yet given much consideration to the issue may begin to explore their options.

There are a number of cloud computing solutions on offer and the prices are within reach of many enterprises including more than just the largest. Even medium and smaller enterprises are beginning to realize that these services can save them the costs of acquiring more computer hardware and employing more IT people. Public hosting can offer options that are flexible enough to enable businesses to pay for what they use and for nothing more.

Where a corporation cannot contemplate increasing capital expenditure to add server capacity it can turn to a service provider to ensure that storage capacity is available. Flexibility may be gained at a reasonable price.

At times when additional capacity is needed, the enterprise may pay for extra storage capacity in the cloud. At other times this capacity may not be necessary and when it is not used the costs will be lower. This flexibility enables the corporation to use the capacity in a cost effective way.

As the service provider can continue providing the services at all times, the flexibility is increased for the enterprise using the services. Its employees may access the relevant data round the clock and their work does not need to stop at any particular time.

In the coming years the flexibility will be increased and there will be more options open to enterprises looking for these computing solutions. Service providers will increase the scope of services offered. New possibilities will open up as the intercloud becomes a reality.

The intercloud is essentially a structure in which the various clouds may talk to each other and transfer data in real time. The enterprises making use of the services will therefore gain further in flexibility. The ability to transfer data among clouds by changing service providers will be more realistic.

The various service providers will have a greater ability to transfer data between their servers and this will open up the possibility for enterprises to take advantage of the most efficient service provider at any particular moment. Different functions within a corporation may therefore be handled by different service providers and they will switch from one provider to another as soon as another option becomes more efficient than their existing provider.

This development will have consequences for the service providers themselves. They will need to make sure that each package they make available is priced correctly and that the services they provide are more efficient than those of their competitors. Where another provider produces a more effective solution to a particular problem the customer will be able to switch to the services of the competitor almost instantly.

One possible consequence is that far more corporations will want to obtain services from the cloud and the size of the market will increase. Another consequence is that there will be more pressure on service providers to increase efficiency and distinguish themselves from competitors. The consequence will be good for business that will have more flexibility in cloud management and have access to more efficient services at a lower cost.