The explosion of connected devices is fueling exponential growth in global data traffic, with the volume of information crossing the Internet every second already exceeding the total amount stored online 20 years ago, according to a recent infographic by Computer Science Degree Hub. This unprecedented increase poses both a challenge and an opportunity for IT organizations, which now face the daunting challenge of adapting to the fast evolving needs of mobile workers who require, above all else, access to their files wherever they are and regardless of what end-points they’re using.

The answer is cloud computing, which accounted for half the $300 billion worldwide enterprise software market in 2013. The trend is expected to continue on a strong growth path in the coming years as established vendors such as Hewlett-Packard work to smoothen the journey for CIOs.

As Seamus Dunne of HP Technology Services explained in an interview on SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE, deploying a cloud solution is one thing, but realizing sustained results is another.  “When you get set up, it’s pretty easy to consume it –  it’s a good experience, you get all the agility, all the business benefits, the lower costs – but it’s not so easy to manage, it’s not so easy to govern.”

“What we’re doing is we’re putting that whole known, enterprise-grade help and support right across every deployment,” Dunne said. On the other side of the aisle are newer players like Box and Dropbox that are untying user experience and data access from the constraints of the physical desktop.

Although two years younger, Dropbox boasts ten times as many users as Box thanks its early focus on everyday consumers. The company has raised a massive $857 million to date and commands a $10 billion valuation, but only generated $200 million in revenue last year. Box in comparison saw its sales double in 2013 on the back of growing adoption among business users, a narrower but potentially more lucrative market that is set to take off as new business goals drive organizations to embrace consumerization in all of its forms.

The company is pressing its enterprise advantage with OneCloud, an online framework that unifies corporate data across devices to make shared files easily accessible from third party productivity tools. The surrounding app ecosystem recently passed the 1,000 mark, a symbolic step towards Box’s vision for vertical integration.

Source: ComputerScienceDegreeHub.com