Among businesses that have already deployed the cloud, most have realized that the technology allows them to perform more smoothly and efficiently. With this in mind, a recent Business Insider report noted that companies that fail to implement cloud services in the near future will likely be trampled by their competition.

The world of IT will undergo significant changes in 2012, with cloud services on the forefront of much of this evolution. For example, disaster recovery plans for small businesses will be deployed on a much larger scale than in years past, as organizations respond to the  number of devastating events that occurred in 2011, such as the floods in Thailand and earthquake in Japan. With this development, disaster recovery plans are likely to be combined with small business data backup solutions in an effort to ensure companies can resume operations as quickly as possible following an IT outage, the news source reported.

Additionally, the consumerization of IT has led many individuals to use personal mobile devices in and outside of the workplace. To adapt to this commonality, the cloud will become more mobile in the future, allowing individuals to access data remotely on any device, Business Insider noted.

According to ABI Research, more than 240 million employees will be using the cloud through their mobile devices by 2015. As a result, the market for these services will generate $5.2 billion in revenue.