Ground Report

Cloud Computing has grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple of years or so and has become an integral aspect of an enterprise’s IT strategy. It has streamlined various IT processes by freeing them from the restrictions of hardware licensing data center models and legacy software. It has revolutionized the way how IT services are delivered and how applications, information and business services are accessed by users.

Enterprises that provide cloud services are also generating high revenues. In 2015, Amazon racked in record-breaking revenue of $25.4 billion and a substantial amount of that came from Amazon Web Services (AWS) which mainly provides cloud computing services. But the increasing impact of cloud, has also given rise to apprehensions about how its value can be harnessed as it is continuously evolving. This is the reason why enterprises have to continually monitor current trends to adapt their cloud strategies to prevent oversights and grab market opportunities.

Here are the top 7 cloud computing trends in 2016 and beyond:

1. Hybrid Cloud Computing is the Future:

   Hybrid Cloud Computing is basically the use of private, community or public cloud services with physical application infrastructure or its associated services. The recent deployments of hybrid cloud computing by various companies have made it quite popular. This will encourage more and more business enterprises to implement this in the form of an integrated model having dual platforms, internal and external, that can be leveraged to meet specific business requirements. Therefore, for enterprises to be able to implement a hybrid solution, they should make immediate efforts to integrate dynamic data infrastructures and applications.

2. Containers are the Future of Application:

   One of the emerging trends in cloud computing is container technology. They are growing in popularity because distributed applications are built in such a way that that they can be easily moved around from one application to another or cloud to cloud. There are some aspects of network and security that are expected to be fixed and be enterprise-ready in 2016. At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015, analysts named Container Technology as one of the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2016.   Business enterprises will implement container technology as it provides them with the flexibility of building the app once and running it anywhere.

3. More Sensitive Data will be Channeled through Cloud:

   With the migration of a large number of business enterprises towards cloud, the cloud infrastructure will witness a surge of data, most importantly sensitive data. Enterprises that implemented cloud computing early on did not use it to access critical data. But as the usage of cloud grows with time, enterprises will use it for complex applications involving sensitive data. And whenever sensitive data is involved, data security is of the highest importance. Data breaches can cause huge financial loss to the enterprise and significantly damage their reputation. Therefore, a baseline for security standard needs to be set that will encourage more organizations to take a positive step towards integrating their cloud-based services with their IT resources.

4. Cloud Computing will Reengineer Enterprise IT:

   Products and services are being digitized at a rapid rate. Established business enterprises are constantly being challenged by new competitors who are technologically better organized. Various companies such as Netflix and Airbnb have developed unique processes, organizations and tools which have revolutionized the world of IT.  2016 will see enterprises who have not adopted cloud technology being rooted out by enterprises that are using cloud technology in an efficient manner. These enterprises have to reengineer themselves to transform their performance and stay relevant in this competitive environment.

5. Cloud Native Applications become the Norm:

   The main aim of organizations will be to extract the full potential of their cloud model by designing world-class applications that are optimized to cloud. 2016 will see more organizations focus on cloud-based applications. A large amount of resources and money will be spent on building the cloud infrastructure that can run next-gen cloud native applications that make extensive use of time-based analytics, micro-service support and omni-channel support.

6. Cloud Analytics helps IT:

   To a keep a close eye on cloud deployment costs and leverage its capacity to expand at a rapid pace, enterprises the world over will largely rely on powerful cloud analytics solutions to get better insights from massive data to help them understand and take necessary action wherever needed. International Data Corporation (IDC), in one of its reports has said that the worldwide business analytics market will reach $59.2 billion in 2018 from $37.7 billion in 2013. In 2016, business enterprises will extensively use cloud analytics solution to analyze billing data and usage to quickly spot unwanted expenses and prevent budget overruns. Overall, enterprises will drastically improve their quality of forecasting, planning and decision making.

7. Increased Focus on Training and Certification:

   The increased implementation of cloud technology across various organizations has given rise to the demand for certified professionals who can design, build and run clouds. At present there is a dearth of such professionals which is hindering the growth process that can be achieved through cloud computing. There has been a rise in companies that provide training in cloud computing. Even Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS), who are cloud providers themselves, are offering certifications to bridge the gap. Wanted Analytics has found that there are over a million global cloud computing jobs and the median salary that a professional with cloud computing experience can get is around $90,950. 2016 will see a rise in IT professionals, who did not take up cloud a few years ago, actively taking up cloud classes.

Irrespective of being a large business enterprise or a startup venture, cloud computing has been actively implemented by all and has immensely helped them with their growth and success. But as enterprises grow in size and their cloud computing needs increase, it is wise to implement cloud implementation models provided by cloud service providers to increase efficiency, performance and agility. 2015 has seen rapid evolution in cloud computing and 2016 is not going to be any different. The emerging trends in cloud computing are rapidly becoming best practices and for business enterprises to stay ahead of their game, they have to aggressively optimize their cloud adoptions.