The Next Steps in Cloud Computing

Before the pandemic, cloud computing has started to become an indispensable tool for people’s work and personal lives. As work-from-home arrangements during that crisis, the adoption rate has accelerated exponentially, such that many even among those who are not tech-savvy have at least a Google Drive or an iCloud account where they store their files and photos and videos.

But more importantly, you are probably using cloud computing services yourself to store and share data and information within your work network. You may be using something as simple as Google Drive or something as complex as Amazon Web Services to help get work done.

Cloud computing has certainly come a long way, further expanding their capabilities and bringing benefits to people and companies. At the same time, companies see the benefits and are migrating to the cloud at an accelerated speed.

In a recent report from Globe Newswire, the projected compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of the cloud computing industry is at 18 percent from 2019-2026. This is primarily due to the advantages cloud computing provides to  on-site servers and hardware infrastructure. These advantages include:

• Quick installation and deployment within the company
• Scalability over time
• Lower costs from the reducing the need in hardware, infrastructure. and dedicated maintenance teams
• Mobile support from specialized IT teams

Because of these advantages, cloud computing was estimated to reach a market value from $321 billion in 2019 to $1025.9 billion in 2026.

Trends in cloud computing

The recent pandemic has become a catalyst for many companies to adapt or die. If your company has not adopted the cloud yet, the struggle to keep up has gotten that much harder for you. These adaptation strategies almost always include cloud computing to help remote workers be productive even without meeting in an office.

With the rise of cloud computing companies, certain trends have been coming up that your organization needs to know if you want to thrive and succeed in the new normal. Here are the top three that have caught the attention of many companies and CIOs that you should be taking note of as well:

Multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud Adoptions

While multi-cloud and hybrid cloud adoptions are two separate things, they point to a singular fact about the way companies use the cloud. It all boils down to companies seeking a mix of solutions that increases their efficiency and effectiveness.

The Multi-cloud approach relies on having different cloud computing service providers operating within your company system. Companies like AWS and Google are being pressured more by companies, which adopt different solutions to suit their needs, to enable their systems to connect to one another. This is why Oracle and Microsoft had launched APIs in an effort to connect their products and services to communicate with one another.

The Hybrid cloud approach, on the other hand, has offerings that may or may not come from different providers and may be hosted publicly or privately. This allows companies to pick and choose offerings that suit their needs instead of getting a whole package.

As cloud providers respond to the changing demands of the market, companies are now in the best position to get the right mix of services and offerings that fit their company needs. This means that you can be more granular about the services you want from a particular company while being able to minimize costs and seamlessly transfer to another platform.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning and AI have become a hot topic in recent years due to the advancements and developments that help companies become more efficient and effective. The cloud is no different. As with other technologies, AI has served as an enabler for cloud computing applications and services.

AI algorithms are helping the maintenance of the cloud infrastructure and its processes, making them more efficient and increasing data speed while improving data security.

This means that when you avail of these services, your data and software needs can be much cheaper and quickly delivered.

Edge Computing

Edge is called “the new cloud” with good reason. While cloud computing relies on remote access to and from anywhere, edge computing uses localized data centers that are closer to the devices that use them. This means that they don’t rely on a central cloud network, and are instead handled locally.

This technology solves a lot of problems especially with locations whose information infrastructure is not as mature. Remote locations with little connectivity, areas with latency issues that affect performance of real-time applications, and organizations looking to scale will be the biggest winners for the edge system, making applications more dynamic and responsive.