As we reach the fall of 2018, it is time to look forward to what Cloud technology trends we are likely to see as the year ends and 2019 approaches. We already know that the rate of cloud adoption has increased dramatically this year, and this is set to continue. With a high number of devastating security breaches characterizing 2017, 2018 will continue to see an increase in security measures and regulation. Here are our top tips for 2018’s cloud technology trends:

Increased adoption and optimization
Businesses are increasingly realizing that it is not possible to operate effectively without adoption of the public cloud. Infrastructure costs and opportunity cost, coupled with the growing facilities for encryption, monitoring, disaster recovery and scale-out, mean that it no longer makes sense to run their own cloud. Add to this the exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) (which relies heavily on cloud-based solutions), and we will see a huge growth in both business and individual adoption of the public cloud.

Fortunately, storage capacity is skyrocketing, and Cisco has estimated that by the end of this year the cloud will be 1.1 zettabytes in size – double the space available in 2017. Data storage is set to become cheaper and more easily available as the scope and size of the cloud continues to expand.

AI and cloud security
2018 is witnessing huge leaps forward in AI & ML, enabling tech giants such as Google, IBM and Microsoft to use cloud-based services to promote business growth. For example, IBM and Azure have both launched new cloud products, helping enterprises to make decisions (IBM) and growing the size of cloud services baskets (Azure). Although both ML and AI are relatively underdeveloped compared to their potential, they are now beginning to deliver benefits to enterprise businesses when it comes to cloud applications.

Growth of the hybrid cloud
The hybrid cloud provides businesses, whether small or large, with the best of both worlds: the security of a private cloud, and the size and scale of the public cloud. 2018’s technology trends will see increased adoption of hybrid cloud ecosystems, with even the smallest of businesses jumping on the bandwagon. Why? Because of the increased integration solutions which were developed in 2017 by cloud computing vendors, meaning that enterprises have been abandoning the approach of using big data technologies and the cloud. Integration is becoming faster and simpler, meaning that businesses don’t need devote huge resources to drive hybrid cloud adoption.

Growth of partnerships
In a recent report by Bain & Co, KPMG and Statistica, it was argued that the growth of the cloud can only mean extremely fertile ground for computing services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS allows users to access a virtual web resource and the sector is growing rapidly; the IaaS market is predicted to exceed $17 billion by the end of 2018. At the moment, tech giants such as Azure, IBM Bluemix, AWS and Google Compute Engine (GCE) are dominating – expect partnerships to develop, build and grow as more firms get in on the action, both this year and into the future.

Serverless architecture
Traditional server networks are now being consistently outperformed by serverless architecture. 2018 is going to see a revolution in this area, as people and businesses abandon server networks, which lag, costing valuable time. It’s still not certain how enterprises will move away from server networks, but it’s a key technology trend to watch. Going serverless is much quicker, more cost-effective and more efficient, and makes installing any new updates simple and less complicated.

It is this serverless architecture that has been at the heart of technology trends so far this year, and this should continue into the next. Developers can now build application services and run them without any infrastructure, allowing connection across cloud services enabling them run more efficiently.

Cloud containers, microservices and DevOps
In today’s world, customers expect a lot from the products and services they use and enterprise businesses cannot afford to waste time on lengthy development or update periods. Simply put, businesses need to adapt their IT architecture and processes to meet the demands of scalability. Microservices breaks down once gigantic applications into a set of smaller, discrete functions that are built to work and evolve independently of each other. This means enterprises can use microservices to deliver features and solutions on different delivery timelines and making it easier to develop systems with parts that can be used by multiple applications, allowing DevOps teams to work quickly and more efficiently.

Containers are used to run each microservice. The number of containers needed is based on load so automating the creation process allows for rapid scalability. Each container contains all the code it needs to execute a particular microservice, creating efficient and isolated execution engines for every application. Microservices and containers allow for rapid development and integration, communication between DevOps team members, continuous delivery of services, and seamless performance testing. This enables enterprise businesses to roll out high quality applications in real time without impacting the user experience in any way.

What lies ahead
Technology trends are always evolving, and many of the developments we may have previously expected haven’t actually materialized. However, you can be sure that 2019 will see cloud computing growing in market share once again. Cloud computing has shown explosive growth since its inception, and this shows no signs of slowing; its sustained strength is truly remarkable. If businesses, whatever their size, want to achieve their IT goals, they need to adopt and optimize cloud services.

Market Research Team

RapidValue

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