Latest Trends in Cloud Computing

Introduction

 

In recent years, cloud computing is on the rise especially as seen in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic was followed by many businesses and companies going virtual and adjusting to the situation. 

 

Digital services gained immense momentum. This goes without saying that 2022 will continue to witness this expanding growth in technologies and solutions. It can be predicted that in 2022, the focus is bound to shift away from the deployment of cloud computing platforms and tools. 

 

Rather than working towards improving a specific function (such as shifting to Zoom meetings), platforms will tend to focus on more holistic strategies centred on enterprise-wide cloud migration.

 

The key trend will continue to be figuring out innovative ways to augment the abilities of remote and hybridized workforces but we will see ongoing innovation in cloud intelligence monitoring and data centre infrastructure as well. (Source)

 

Latest Trends in 2022

 

Let's dive deep to understand the key ways in which this will materialize in the coming years.

 

• Rapid Evolution with Exciting Use Cases

 

Research and advisory firm Gartner has predicted that global spending on cloud services is expected to reach over $482 billion in 2022, up from $313 billion in 2020. 
 

Cloud computing infrastructure is undeniably the backbone of the delivery pipeline of just about every digital service, right from social media and streaming entertainment to connected cars and autonomous internet of things (IoT) infrastructure.

 

Latest ultra-fast networks like 5G and Wi-Fi 6E promise that new types of data can be streamed. This can be seen especially as the explosion in the availability of cloud gaming platforms such as Google’s Stadia and Amazon Luna.

 

This is bound to go hand in hand with ever-increasing levels of investment over the course of 2022. We will also witness the arrival of cloud virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) which should lead to smaller and cheaper headsets. 

 

More and more services will migrate to cloud platforms. The simple reason lies in the ability of cloud technology to make every other technology lighter, faster, and more accessible from a customer point of view. We all agree that this essential factor will be a key driving force behind the rise of cloud platforms. 

 

• Increased Sustainability 

 

With the rising carbon footprint everywhere, all responsible businesses know that they need to work towards tackling the challenges of climate change. 

 

When we talk about technological solutions, this means reducing the energy usage associated with increasingly powerful computing engines, larger digital storage requirements, and the energy costs of providing 24/7 “always-on” infrastructure services to customers. 

 

Many tech giants will have to spend 2022 figuring out effective measures and innovations that can enable them to achieve their net-zero carbon aspirations. 

 

For instance, Amazon, the world’s biggest buyer of renewable energy, also has 206 of its own sustainable energy projects running worldwide, generating around 8.5GW per year. 

 

Now it is focusing on reducing the “downstream” energy usage created by its products like Echo and Fire TV once they land in customers’ homes. This shows how sustainability is gaining relevance on the agenda of companies these days.

 

According to Analytics Insights, for businesses like Amazon, this becomes important also because the effects of climate change are going to cost companies up to $1.6 trillion per year by 2025.

 

• Reducing the gap between public and private clouds through Hybrid Cloud 

 

There were two options available for businesses that were migrating to the cloud. They could use easily accessible, pay-as-you-go public cloud solutions or make use of customized and flexible private cloud solutions. 

 

Private cloud (where an organization effectively has its own cloud, and data never has to leave its premises) is often required for regulatory and security reasons. In today's digital age, companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are expanding their rollout of “hybrid” models that adopt a best-of-both-worlds approach. 
 

Data that must be quickly and frequently accessible, by customers and other stakeholders, can be kept on public AWS or Azure servers and accessed through tools, applications, and dashboards. Data that is sensitive or mission-critical can be kept on private servers where access can be monitored, and it can be processed using proprietary applications. 

 

Hybrid cloud is gaining rapid popularity also because many companies are growing past their first forays into cloud computing, and once having established the benefits, are looking for additional use cases. This has led to many companies finding themselves in a “multi-cloud” environment, using a number of services sometimes from several different suppliers. 

 

A hybrid cloud approach can reduce the number of complications involved, all due to the emphasis put on streamlining the user experience and keeping the backend stack invisible when it should not be seen.

 

• AI in cloud computing

 

AI services have also witnessed a massive difference after leveraging cloud computing. 

 

According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the societal impact of cloud computing on AI

“more profound than electricity or fire” 

 

We all know that machine learning platforms need enormous processing power and data bandwidth for training and processing data, and this is made available to all by cloud data centres.

 

The “every day” AI we encounter all time right from a basic Google Search to Instagram filters, exists in the cloud, and technology that routes traffic from data centres to our devices and manages storage infrastructure is built on machine learning. The growth and evolution of cloud and AI are inextricably interwoven, and this will only become more visible during 2022 and beyond. 

 

Experts predict that strong trends in AI will be “creative” algorithms – generative machine learning that can create anything from art to synthetic data to train more AIs – along with language modelling that will increase the accuracy of machines in understanding human languages. 

 

Cloud computing will have a major role to play when we consider delivering these services to users as well as the development of a robust infrastructure to deliver them.

 

• The Emergence of Serverless Cloud

 

Undeniably, a new concept - Serverless cloud is gaining momentum in the market from providers including Amazon (AWS Lambda), Microsoft (Azure Functions), and IBM Cloud Functions. 

 

Also known as “functions-as-a-service,” this implies organizations are no longer tied into leasing servers or paying for fixed amounts of storage or bandwidth. This provides a truly pay-as-you-go service where the infrastructure scales invisibly as an application requires it. 

 

It adds another layer of abstraction between the user and the platform, this means there is no need for the user to get involved with complicated configurations and technicalities. 

 

Serverless cloud computing is going to have a key role in defining the broader trend across the cloud and the entire tech landscape of creating new user experiences, making innovative solutions not only more accessible but also more user-friendly. (Reference)

 

 

Ending Note 

 

This blog ends here. While ending the blog we can conclude that technology has become such an integral part of our life that it is altering our personal and professional life, every day. The world of cloud computing is fast developing along with a multitude of promising and innovative developments. 

 

All new and existing business industries alike, have welcomed these cloud computing trends with open arms. It is estimated that the global cloud computing industry would grow to $623.3 billion by the end of 2023. Cloud computing has major advantages to offer for individuals and corporations alike.