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In much the same way as most people believe Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool will be in the top four of the Premier League next May (although not necessarily in that order), there appears to be a consensus in the software world that cloud computing and SaaS, virtualisation and virtual desktop infrastructure will be the big trends in 2009.
Martin Painter, EMEA channel director at NetSuite, predicts cloud computing will become "an increasingly disruptive force within the channel over the next 12 months, as resellers seek to offer it as a complement to their on-premise application sales".
Malcolm Rowe, regional manager for Northern Europe at Akamai Technologies, agrees cloud computing has gained significant traction as a concept but not a reality in the enterprise. "Cloud computing has turned into a land grab for technology vendors. But as the great land race for cloud computing gets underway, buyers need to be mindful of who is minding the cloud and ensuring it is optimised to support their business," he says.
Chris Mayers, chief security architect at Citrix, claims organisations are already seeing the benefits of cloud computing, but warns they need to plan carefully. "With cloud computing, data is deposited with the provider, just like depositing money with a bank. You need to be able to get that data back when you need it and be confident the provider is safeguarding your data."
Martin Schneider, director of product marketing at SugarCRM, says that with new cloudbased on-demand applications offering greater customisation capabilities and greater flexibility, users will have a lot more choice and control. "There is room enough for many clouds in the sky and many IT departments will draw on cloud computing power and platforms from a...