As the Cloud evolves, critical technology enhancements will also have to evolve to meet the challenge regarding mass delivery of applications or applications/software as a service.

In phase II, Enterprises will continue to expand the use of Cloud Computing through their own Private Clouds and the continuing extension of data centers to the larger cloud providers.  This will require Cloud providers to enhance their storage and application delivery models and provide a seamless provisioning scheme for both server farm management and end user subscriptions.  Citrix is aiding this evolution by providing a testing ground for service providers and enterprises alike to begin proof of concept work for Cloud integration.

During this phase, Tier 1 managed service providers (MSPs) will also enter the space using the Tier 2 MSPs as proving grounds through white label offerings.  Tier 2 MSPs will need the ability to provide multitenancy by managing multiple server farms both on premise and off.  Tier 2 MSPs will also have to grapple with the integration of back office billing to the large service provider Operations (OSS) and Billing (BSS) systems.

Deutsche Telekom through its Managed Services group, T-Systems, has already begun to develop this market approach.  Note that the Cloud will be used in this phase to continue expansive growth of existing data centers and not to displace them entirely either in the MSP or the Enterprise.  As with Phase I, the Cloud Bridge is the essential component to provide integration between the Cloud Center and Enterprise or MSP data centers.