Surely you have heard about the so-called "Digital Transformation", or also "Fourth Industrial Revolution", this transition process towards the use of cloud technology that many companies have adopted. For this reason, maybe you have wondered what is the future of cloud computing, one of the main engines in this field that offers varied solutions, such as data storage, information security, even marketing responses thanks to machine learning.
The size of the market is expected future of Cloud Computing grows from 445.3 billion dollars in 2021 to 947.3 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3 % during the forecast period. This increase in investment is mainly due to the financial sectors that are getting results to maintain their business functions as a company.
In addition, given the current financial crisis that started during the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies and governments have become interested in cloud services as a means to reduce costs. The cloud is especially attractive for SMEs and small businesses due to the accessible reduction of initial investments offered by these platforms. Even the time to start offering products and services in the market is drastically reduced, you can have everything ready in a couple of hours.
However, there may be issues such as the security of your data or the control about your spending on cloud services that still generate doubts, therefore, it is worth know what the future of Cloud Computing is. In this way, you will be able to choose which path your company can take in this Digital Transformation.
The future of Cloud Computing
Before understanding the path that this new technology will take, it is pertinent to understand the main four areas into which it is divided:
- IAAS (Infrastructure as a Service): Cloud infrastructure is offered for any type of development where companies can manage everything from scratch. Virtualized servers are used in which the client only has to worry about the software configuration part, since the hardware remains in the hands of the provider.
- PAAS (platform as a service): in this service, both hardware and software are directly offered so that the client can remotely access the contracted services to get started, without worrying about maintenance or configuration of hardware or software.
- SAAS (software as a service): this is the most used service that allows you to have applications hosted in the cloud that can be accessed immediately, without extra installations or configurations. According to Trend Micro, in 2019, SAAS contributed 20 billion dollars quarterly to software providers and the forecast is that this figure will grow by 32% each year.
Each of these cloud services are protected by the security offered by the future of Cloud Computing.. For example, Microsoft Azure identifies new threats through its global, real-time cybersecurity intelligence services based on analysis of 18 billion Bing pages, 400 billion emails, 1 billion Windows device updates, and 450 billion authentications each month.
Experts like Irving Wladawsky-Berger, They explain that the Future of Cloud Computing offers the opportunity as "a new consumption and development model inspired by Internet services, which responds to a problem that has been appreciating for some time with the extension of computing services." He takes as an example the applications that have become essential like Facebook, Google Maps, Waze, etc., which process much of their data in the cloud, these will only be the first.
Serverless Computing, a future without computers
The future of Cloud Computing goes through the concept of serverless computing, a way to create applications without the need to maintain or run infrastructure such as servers or computers. This model, also called FaaS Model (Function as a Services), allows developers to put all their attention on their main product instead of spending time provisioning, scaling and managing servers to fulfill their daily functions.
FaaS is based on the single-purpose code block concept. The model uses an event-driven architecture to process functions. Functions are executed when an event is triggered, such as API requests, database changes, scheduled events, etc. This is the basis of serverless application development, which is created by combining multiple functions.
Due to the impact that Future of Cloud Computing can propel your company for years to come, thanks to innovation programs based on cloud technologies:
- Data strategy: Relevant agreements are being made between different vendors to promote the generation of virtual data lakes, which can improve the exploitation of information. With these data lakes, companies incorporate disciplines such as AI-Fueled Organizations and MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) into their business models.. In this way it is possible to integrate capabilities in the cloud such as: natural language processing, voice and image processing, cognitive computing or the possibility of simulating or complementing human cognitive abilities. Likewise, it also allows the development of prediction and optimization capabilities derived from artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), as well as Deep Learning linked to the application of neural networks.
- Customer experience: Other areas where the Future of Cloud Computing offers an intelligent use of data more clearly is in the personalization of the virtual experience of customers and employees, thanks to data-driven across the organization, linked to cloud services that allows better market segmentation.
- Distributed digital ecosystems: The future of Cloud Computing allows information to be collected that can be exploited by artificial intelligence and data analytics techniques. These new ecosystems promote the creation of product marketplaces and the development of logistics models that improve competitiveness.
- Operations: Regarding the operating model, cloud technologies and AI models are being applied in the reduction of the execution times and cost of the processes, directly improving delivery times and reducing downtime and production failures.
as we have already mentioned in other articles, small and medium-sized businesses can see up to a 36% reduction in their production costs thanks to cloud technology, and the future of cloud computing promises to further reduce this significant savings.
Clash of the Titans in the Future of Cloud Computing
In addition to these benefits, the Future of Cloud Computing promises a constant rivalry between the big technology companies to meet market expectations. In fact, Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM and Oracle are presented as the top five, capable of reaching figures similar to those of the oil companies (Exxon, Chevron, PetroChina, RD Shell and Total). In 2009 alone, they had a great moment in the stock market, with spectacular rises ranging from Oracle's 40% to Apple's 150%, via Google's 102%, or close to Microsoft and IBM's 60%.
These industry giants are taking positions in the cloud services market with either a multi-product or multi-vendor approach. The pioneers have been building the foundations to bring innovative services to businesses and consumers. However, it will soon not be enough to offer basic services and differentiation will become an imperative in the future of Cloud Computing..
According to Forrester Research, the opportunities present themselves mainly for two types of agents: the enablers or "facilitators", which cover technological areas such as virtualization and automation of the data center (IBM, VMware/EMC, Red Hat, Intel, Sun, Citrix or BladeLogic) and service providers offer the infrastructure of the model (Microsoft taking the lead with Microsoft Azure and Google with Google Apps Engine).
But, this can change drastically, as they can offer both service options. Borders are often crossed between one level and another. For example, AWS encompasses a number of services offered by Amazon between IaaS and PaaS, from computing capacity according to specific needs (EC2, Elastic Compute Cloud), massive data storage (S3, Simple Storage Service) or a queue service to store data that travels between different computers (SQS, Simple Queue Service). Salesforce, the SaaS company par excellence with its CRM products over the Internet.
Companies like Amazon are aware that they can make a profit by partnering with other companies. Amazon offers the cloud, allies, applications and, in this way, can cover a greater part of the market in-house or through its machines in pay per use mode.
Finally, we cannot ignore emerging markets, only in Latin America is expected to grow 30.4% in investment in cloud services by 2022. This means that there is still a wide margin of possible growth for companies interested in this area. If you are interested know more about this, Discover the solutions that Codster offers and will offer in Cloud Computing and its Future, surely we have the perfect solutions for your company.
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