2013 will be the year that more businesses maximise the potential of the cloud as they take a closer look at applications, according to Node4.

The data centre and communications firm, which launched its n4Cloud solution last year, has said that the discussion of cloud computing will go beyond merely adopting the infrastructure. The focus will broaden to take on the benefits that cloud based applications will deliver.

Paul Bryce, Business Development Director at Node4, said, “While businesses want to control and reduce costs, they also want to grow, improve efficiencies and innovate. Having powerful, reliable, scalable IT systems in place is a direct contributor to this. This year will be the year in which applications become the focus. 

“The end user within a business is not concerned about whether their service is run on a dedicated server in a computer room in the office or in an external data centre. What is important to them is the type of application available and that the service level agreement around that application guarantees it will be available to them 100% of the time. Utilising cloud services in the right way allows them to achieve this and therefore this is how more applications are going to be delivered to businesses.”

For many companies, 2012 was an eventful year with disaster recovery remaining on the agenda following floods in the UK and storms in the US. Disaster Recovery will continue to be an inherent feature of cloud services as it can offer flexibility to businesses in the way users access their applications and data.

Paul continued, “At the back end, we are going to see many more software vendors delivering their software in a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) model so that businesses can rent licences rather than buy them to fit within the expected cloud pricing model.”

For more information on Node4's cloud solutions, download their cloud brochure.