cloud strategies in 2022 and after

Cloud strategies in 2022 and after

Interactive prototyping of ideas until a desirable outcome is achieved is the core of agile computing. It enables the business to leverage the benefits of agile principles and grow into a flexible institution which is capable of quickly adapting itself to newly emerging trends and technologies. Cloud computing which originated as a key tool for promoting agility in an enterprise has become an indispensable IT resource now. In cloud computing context, agility means to develop, test and launch applications that promote business growth in a perpetually changing IT environment. In this article, we will discuss the trends which are shaping cloud computing in 2022 and after.

• Muti-cloud is the de facto standard:

Majority of the organizations are adopting multi-cloud and hybrid cloud approach because some workloads run better or more cost effectively on different clouds. Always-on business strategy is a key to meet SLA’s and that turns the tide in favour of “best of both world’s” approach . IaC tools like Terraform are helping organizations to develop cloud agnostic systems. As per a Gartner report 90% of the business are supposed to have muti-cloud solutions in place by 2025. Amazon web services , Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, Oracle cloud Infrastructure and IBM cloud are some key players in this market with many smaller players also emerging up. Adopting a muti-cloud or hybrid cloud strategy has its own challenges in terms of complexity in management and interoperability of cloud environment but partnering with a good solutions provider can help in successful adoption.

• Edge cloud will continue to gain more traction:

Cloud and edge computing will go hand in hand in the long run. Many futuristic applications developed for industries like retail, manufacturing, entertainment and autonomous vehicles, cloud gaming etc are more latency sensitive and compute intensive and cannot provide good customer experience using public clouds. This created the need for a more dynamic and distributed cloud model which gave birth to edge cloud where compute and storage cloud resources are moved closer to edge of the network for creation and consumption of content. It promotes ultra-low latency, real time responsiveness, local compute and high performance in applications.

• Regulatory Compliance amid data focus on data privacy:

Certain laws and regulations like GDPR in Europe require enterprise data to reside in restricted physical boundaries. GAIA-X is another ambitious data and infrastructure project created in this direction. Many other countries are also working on creating legislations around data privacy. Business houses will continue to accord to the compliance guidelines to prove their trustworthiness and avoid any legal complications. Multi-cloud or hybrid models will find more acceptance in future as they help organizations to meet compliance requirements as cloud service providers, regions and availability zones can be chosen on case-to-case basis.

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in cloud:

AI and ML are two co-related technologies which are emerging as a base for next generation of digital transformation. The futuristic applications based on them need scalable data and compute to solve the real business problems. That is where cloud computing comes in. Through cloud computing AI/ML capabilities are making solutions insight-driven, efficient and capable while retaining their flexible, agile and cost optimization characteristics.

• Security of cloud applications:

Due to many data breaches coming to light over last few years focus is being shifted to security first approach in cloud. Considerable efforts are put in place to increase visibility across the cloud environments to overcome fragmentation and reduce cyber risks. Post covid security strategies are being redesigned to implement borderless security based on a zero trust architecture(ZTA). Investments are being made on cloud security hardening and monitoring.

• Cloud native is taking up center stage:

The applications are not only residing in the cloud but they are being built there from ground up as it promotes efficient utilization of cloud architecture. The term “citizens of the cloud” is coined for such applications. Post covid more and more organizations have realized importance of enterprise mobility. Cloud native solutions are tailor made for the needed connectivity and scalability to achieve it. Though Monolithic architecture is still a choice for many start-ups but only up to the point a usable MVP is developed. When a business is ready to scale to next level microservices architecture is the hottest trend as long as use case supports horizontal scaling. Microservices are core of cloud native architecture and will continue to make push for cloud native apps.

• Cloud FinOps:

Cost optimization of cloud spending is a key factor in a successful cloud strategy and many organizations realize over a course of time that a lot of their cloud resources keep lying useless. This gave rise to FinOps an evolving cultural practice which emphasizes on the benefits of taking data driven spending decisions by effective collaboration between engineering, finance, technology and business teams. Bringing more visibility not only allows the organization to manage usage patterns but also helps in identifying oversized infrastructure or underutilized services. With the gaining popularity of multi-cloud , a new generation of insight driven cloud management platforms are emerging to facilitate the understanding, optimization and prediction of monthly cloud costs. As these tools will become more popular cost optimization in complex cloud environments will be more real.

• Sustainability in the cloud:

The more technology is touching our lives the more impact it has on hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere. Like all other businesses cloud service providers are trying to reduce their carbon footprint by using renewable energy, bringing more efficiency to power usage by using better cooling techniques and other innovative ways. The choices businesses make at various stages of their cloud migration determines not only the economic and societal but also long term environmental impact of business activities. Greener balance sheets and contribution towards a greener planet has become an important aspect of brand image of a business.