In 2011, we saw an explosion in devices, data, mass adoption of software-as-a-service, and a hype cycle for cloud-based IT services move through concept to reality. Despite uncertain economies around the world, there is a great deal of excitement and optimism leading into 2012. In 2012, we'll see more organizations embrace cloud computing, taking advantage of an OpEx approach to IT. As such, outsourcing will become more commonplace and services such as cloud storage will become more popular. Armed with the insight from direct conversations with our growing base of more than 16,000 customers, we here at Riverbed have created our top 10 IT predictions for 2012.

1. Data will continue to grow
The growth of rich Internet applications such as video, mobile applications and cloud-based applications will lead to continued data growth. This will drive the need for greater efficiency, centralized IT management and more visibility into the WAN.

2. Computing will be even more ubiquitous
With the growth of networked devices including smartphones, tablets and the adoption of cloud based services, computing will become even more ubiquitous. This trend has been furthered by some organizations that have bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.

3. Web pages will need better optimization as dynamic content increases
By some estimates, load times of Web pages have quadrupled in the past 10 years due to the growth of dynamic content. Underperforming Web sites provide a poor user experience and result in possible lost business transactions, lower productivity and higher costs of operations. Optimization for the Web pages will be increasingly desired.

4. As prices decline, cloud storage adoption grows
Data objects stored in the public cloud will grow faster than expected as cloud storage prices continue to decline, data set growth explodes and a difficult economy forces companies to implement more cost-efficient solutions. Cloud gateway vendors focusing on backup and archiving use cases will experience above average growth due to the large economic benefits delivered by these solutions.

5. Hybrid cloud takes off
Hybrid cloud will emerge as a hot trend as an increase in flexible APIs and interoperability with existing IT assets steadily grow.

6. SaaS adoption continues
The continued consumerization of IT and increased mobility will spur the adoption of SaaS-based applications.

7. Fewer organizations will own IT assets
With maturing trends such as cloud computing, virtualization and virtual desktops, a growing number of organizations will own no IT assets.

8. Smart devices will overtake PCs as the most used vehicle for accessing the Web
By the end of 2012, the number of Web-enabled smartphones and tablets will surpass the number of PCs in use. In the enterprise, increasing globalization, flexible schedules and mobile applications that offer the chance to transform business processes and customer interaction are spurring this growth.

9. IPv6 gains momentum
The adoption of the new standard Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is being spurred by the depletion of the last remaining blocks of IPv4.

10. Video Usage in the enterprise takes off
As the popularity of video delivered over HTTP increases, video usage in the enterprise will gain momentum.

• 2011 Retrospective and Predictions for 2012