Evolutions in cloud computing can have a significant impact in the broader world of business tech, so staying abreast of developments as they emerge is sensible. Three years back we published an article with the title Cloud Computing Trends From Today To 2020. At that time, Gartner confirmed that the cloud market is changing and this change has to be exploited by companies in their favour. Growth was predicted in data analysis, backup, archiving, Software as a Service, hybrid type IT solutions and Internet of Things. Today, we can see growth in all of these niches. 2020 faced history COVID-19 pandemic which increased the importance of the services Gartner predicted 3 years back. To that end, here are a few of the trends that are already set to reconfigure the market in 2020 and beyond.
This year, Gartner emphasized on Hyperautomation (which includes artificial intelligence and machine learning), edge computing, blockchain, AI security, distributed cloud and autonomous things among many points to help develop a strategy based on trends.
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Complexity is increasing
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The demand for microservices, serverless and FaaS, hybrid cloud, poly-cloud and multi-cloud ecosystems is growing, which means that organizations are faced with the prospect of having to manage increasingly complex solutions and newer solutions. Serverless and FaaS are definitely different from the other cloud services.
Of course, an adaption of this complexity comes with several benefits, chief amongst which is the fact that businesses will not be tied down to a single vendor for all of their cloud needs. This will give them more flexibility in terms of migrating data and services to different platforms, while also forcing vendors to be more amenable to such demand from their clients, rather than being restrictive as they have been in the past.
Automation is enhancing accessibility
Being able to automate key business processes and eliminate the challenges usually involved with storing and analyzing data to glean actionable insights is something that more cloud solutions can offer.
This comes down to the growing role of machine learning and artificial intelligence in a cloud context or simply as an “as-a-service” model, and organizations across every industry, from the automotive sector to the online casino market, are poised to benefit. The additional advantage of this is that it means cloud platforms can be leveraged without the need for every firm to have its own data experts employed permanently to assess and interpret information; automation can take care of this and thus overcome the skills shortage in this area.
Availability in multiple regions is becoming essential
Another expectation that more organizations are placing on the cloud is that the solutions they use will be able to support services in as many parts of the world as possible, delivering a consistent experience to users regardless of their location. This is being achieved by the creation of small-scale data centres distributed on a wider scale so that instances can be run nearby to reduce lag and improve performance. The so-called “pop-up” approach to the cloud is expected to become even more influential in the next few years, with the vast server farms that are already in action being supplemented by these more compact satellite facilities.
Portable data centres are also set to rise to prominence, meaning that they can be set up on the doorstep of some large event, such as a sports competition or a music festival, thus allowing the organizers to serve customers more effectively.
Blockchain, wearable and augmentation becoming matters to consider
Blockchain is a kind of distributed ledger, and we have already discussed the beneficial usages of blockchain without the need for a centralized authority. Various types of physical augmentation, wearables are day by day coming into mainstream usage from the automotive & mining industries to smartwatches. Our abilities of vision, computing, hearing, perception and biological function augmentation are becoming realities. We can think that in near-future management of diabetes like diseases will also become wearable based.
Cost cutting is important
While in the early days of cloud adoption businesses were more willing to throw money into this technology to reap the reputed benefits before their competitors, the stabilization of the market means that it is a more level playing field and so the aim for most adopters now is to save money wherever possible. Whether this is through the use of AI and big data to improve customer service, or by embracing an increased use of analytics to see whether their use of their existing resources is optimal, a variety of strategies are being used with this purpose in mind.
Conclusion
Introduction of 5G in wearable devices will change the way of cognitive computing we are experiencing today. The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the planned growth in the IT and telecom sector slightly affecting the previous forecasts for 2020. That is not to say that cloud spending is set to slow down; quite the opposite is true. The public cloud alone is anticipated to enjoy spending increases of almost a fifth in 2020 alone, with 60% of organizations turning to third-party vendors for the managed services that they offer. Whatever trends take precedence, the cloud is showing no signs of slowing down. Even during the pandemic crisis, the usage of cloud computing services increased the healthcare industry. We can safely conclude that cloud computing has reached maturity and the basic models of cloud computing such as IaaS and SaaS will continue the growth. Some newer models such as serverless and FaaS got added whereas wearable, blockchain, data analytics and augmentation increased the span of cloud computing.
