In the business world, there are few technologies that have had a greater impact than Cloud Computing. In this article, 7 new Cloud Computing trends for the future.
According to a 2018 study by Gartner, cloud users will double by 2021; at the same time, the market built around this technology will grow from $153 billion in 2017 to an estimated $302 billion by 2021. According to Gartner, by 2022, about 90% of organizations will use “cloud” services (according to another study). Moreover, already today, Cloud Computing skills are the most requested by companies in every sector according to research from LinkedIn.
There are many reasons for the overwhelming success of this technology.
Relying on a service provider in the cloud, in on-demand mode, reduces costs, from those related to the purchase of one or more local servers (with the related costs for management and maintenance) to those for software and cyber-security.
Then, there are the advantages of flexibility and scalability which Cloud Computing systems can guarantee for most any type of company, from established organizations, to growing start-ups that scale up data collection and operations over just a few months.
And, let’s not forget fundamental issues like security and reliability. The best cloud providers offer fundamental guarantees on these sensitive issues. In this post we focused on the main benefits offered by Cloud Computing systems. Now, we want to look ahead. In this post, we’ll be looking at the seven main Cloud Computing trends on the horizon.
1. Hybrid and Multi-Cloud
What is the Hybrid Cloud? Without getting too technical, the hybrid cloud is a Cloud Computing environment that exploits both public and private clouds as well as some third-party tools. In this way, the logic of on-demand, pay-per-use, and Software as a Service (SaaS) are exploited simultaneously, all in an enhanced way.
The result is absolutely dynamic, scalable, and flexible machine and resource management. Even more importantly,the hybrid system lends itself to great opportunities for “personalization.” Each company program its ideal combination, as personalized as possible and built “to measure,” according to its characteristics and needs (see trend 6 for more on personalization).
Of course, this has a positive impact on performance. It’s no wonder, then, that the use of Hybrid Cloud solutions has increased by 7% in a single year, from 2018 to 2019 (source: RightScale). In addition, 58% of companies now have a hybrid cloud computing strategy (also according to RightScale).
The Multi-cloud is something very similar to the Hybrid: it is the use of different Cloud Computing and data storage systems within a single IT architecture. There can be multi-cloud systems based only on public systems, only on private systems or, finally, on a combination of hybrid systems.
2. Serverless
“Serverless,” also known as, FaaS (Function as a Service) is one of the main Cloud Computing trends.
First of all, don’t be fooled by the name: one or more servers for processing operations are always essential, upstream of everything. The real innovation of these systems is the possibility to run applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Translated: provisioning, scalability, and server management are automatically administered, with enormous advantages for flexibility and performance.
The first serverless model was released by Amazon in 2014 (known as AWS Lambda); Microsoft, IBM, and Google soon followed with their own serverless offerings. Serverless solutions were used by 21% of companies in 2018. Compared to the previous year, serverless grew about 75% (source).
3. New Backup and Disaster Recovery Systems
One of the most important advantages of Cloud Computing is the efficiency and elasticity of the Backup and Disaster Recovery systems (a term used to identify all recovery measures relating to data, systems or infrastructures).
According to a recent Spiceworks report, 15% of the cloud budget is invested in improving this fundamental aspect.
That’s why all major cloud service providers (public, private or hybrid) are working hard on this front.
4. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
Combining Cloud Computing and Big Data analysis brings enormous benefits and enhances the effectiveness of both technologies.
In this sense, we understand the importance of implementing Artificial Intelligence systems to better interpret the enormous and varied amount of data useful for improving all business processes (both those aimed “inside” the organization, as well as outside facing processes, from marketing to purchasing departments, to sales and Customer Service).
The combination of Cloud Computing, collection of Big Data and subsequent interpretation through Artificial Intelligence systems must be studied carefully and above all must be calibrated to measure, depending on the needs of the individual company, and its objectives.
Learn more about the advantages from the combined exploitation of Big Data and Cloud Computing systems in this post.
5. IoT (Internet of Things)
Having “objects” connected to the network allows you to place a large amount of data, often very precise and significant (and until recently unavailable), in the cloud.
IoT technologies related to Cloud Computing can, for example, be very useful for monitoring a company’s production processes to detect inefficiencies and study solutions for improvement.
But that’s not all: the Internet of Things can also prove valuable in relationships with users; think about how much data can be collected by companies in the Utility Industry through counters connected to the network. This is data that is useful for companies, but also for customers themselves. All of this translates into a potential increase in revenue, but also in an improvement in customer loyalty. And this is just to give an example.
6. Everything will revolve, more and more, around personalization
Cloud computing almost naturally leads to personalization, on all fronts. Personalization will be one of the main Cloud Computing trends in the next future.
Upstream, there is the possibility of building a software and infrastructure ecosystem that is closely tailored to the individual company (and that can vary over time, adapting to new needs). This is a possibility that becomes even more important in Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Cloud systems.
Further downstream, however, there is the possibility of exploiting the cloud to collect as much data as possible (as we have seen above, in point 4); but, above all, significant data (the so-called “Deep Data” or “Smart Data”), useful for bringing personalization all contact operations with customers, from marketing to Customer Communication (to the latter we have dedicated this other article).
7. Cybersecurity
As the adoption of Cloud Computing systems increases, so do security issues.
This is both an essential and delicate point that requires the utmost attention (both from providers and from companies that use their systems).
With the introduction of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union, cybersecurity has become even more urgent.
This is no small matter. According to a recent Commwault survey, for example, only 12% of IT organizations really understand how GDPR will affect their cloud services.
Again, there is a clear need to rely on professional Cloud Computing service providers who are up to date with the latest regulations, software updates, and security features.