By Massimo Bandinelli, Enterprise Marketing Manager at Aruba S.p.A
With global cloud infrastructure spending climbing to $57bn last year, many businesses now rely heavily on the cloud as a crucial component of their digital infrastructure.
As with most areas of technology, new trends will inevitably emerge each year. Businesses are still figuring out what works best for them, often through trial and error. Some of these trends will stick and flourish, whilst others will be replaced by new and improved technologies.
So what trends are here to stay for 2023? Let’s take a look…
Hybrid cloud takes off
The adoption of hybrid cloud solutions (combining on-premises, public and private cloud environments) will continue to grow even further in 2023, after reaching record figures in 2022.
Here’s why more businesses than ever are opting for a hybrid set-up.
1.Flexibility
When choosing a cloud solution, flexibility is one of the most critical things to look for, particularly in today’s unpredictable world. With this in mind, hybrid cloud is an ideal option due to its intrinsic agility and ease of use. In other words, users can benefit from easy scalability and freedom from vendor lock-in.
2.Reduced cost
Budgets are getting tighter. Fortunately, with hybrid cloud, the agility of the offering allows for workloads to be executed in whichever cloud environment is the most cost-effective. Making this choice requires businesses to have a tiering process in place, where public or private cloud storage is chosen depending on data’s durability and performance needs, as well as how frequently it needs to be accessed.
3.Scalability
In contrast with on-premises services, a key benefit of hybrid cloud is that businesses can scale up their resources to meet demand spikes, but also scale down when business slows. Cloud is a no-brainer here, as you can scale to accommodate the spike and then scale back down straight away to keep costs steady and avoid wastage.
As well as facilitating growth, the ability to scale resources not only enhances flexibility but is also a good way of keeping costs down, as businesses don’t have to pay for unused resources.
4.Data sovereignty
Businesses today are increasingly subject to tremendous regulatory scrutiny with new data protection regulations coming into play across the globe. As a result, awareness around data sovereignty is growing. In a nutshell….data sovereignty means that digital data is subject to the laws of the country in which it is processed. This means that it matters greatly where data is stored and where the cloud solution vendors are headquartered.
To solve this, hybrid clouds allow users to keep critical data on-site locally, whilst still enjoying the flexibility of the public cloud for less sensitive tasks.
The bottom line
The apparent driving factor behind the demand for agile, scalable solutions today appears to be the volatility of the planet since the pandemic. Hybrid cloud is designed to fit this exact demand, and we suspect it will therefore continue to be popular this year.
A multi-cloud era is upon us
Another trend that operators should embrace with open arms in 2023 is multi-cloud. The multi-cloud method essentially refers to the distribution of services across several cloud providers. This brings a handful of advantages for IT leaders trying to navigate today’s challenging socioeconomic climate. Here they are:
1.Flexibility
As we’ve already explored, flexibility and customisation are currently two of the most sought-after qualities in the industry – and are therefore key strengths of the multi-cloud. There isn’t yet an individual cloud offering that can meet every demand at high quality. So, switching to multi-cloud allows users to enjoy operational advantages due to a wider choice of services.
2.Accessibility
Our workforces are now highly distributed, with teams across the globe working closely together. With a monolithic cloud solution, this can lead to slow response times for cloud users outside of the appropriate range. Multi-cloud eliminates this problem. Certain processes can be hosted by regional cloud providers located closer to users, allowing organisations to maintain availability whilst also adhering to data legislation regulations.
3.Shadow IT
In light of post-pandemic digital boom, a security concern that comes with this is the growth in independently deployed hardware and software outside of the central IT system of your business, aka shadow IT. This is a very real problem for data centre managers today, but with multi-cloud, shadow IT can simply be transferred into your company’s internal network, restoring much of your control and visibility.
4.Backup
In the event that your central cloud fails, multi-cloud backup enables reliable and scalable backup storage for data, processes, and systems. This is crucial, given the current energy crisis and growing threats from cybercriminals.
5.Infrastructure
The multi-cloud framework allows organisations to easily migrate to new platforms, preventing them from vendor lock-in with single cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud. Once again, the importance of flexibility and diversification is clear.
The bottom line
Essentially, this is only the beginning of the multi-cloud journey. Compared to hybrid cloud which is a bit further along and is an ongoing popular trend, multi-cloud is very much in the infancy of it’s popularity and the best is yet to come.
The cloud-native takeover continues
The driving factor behind the growing dominance of cloud-native software is its flexibility. With cloud-native software, users can scale easily, update without downtime, and use fewer computing resources. So, it’s no surprise that a recent Gartner study forecasts that more than 95% of application workloads will exist on cloud-native platforms by 2025 (up from 30% in 2021). As well as inherent flexibility, the dominance of cloud-native can be accredited to…
1.Maximised productivity
Cloud-native functions such as DevOps make use of automated continuous delivery (CD) pipelines to rapidly test new code to production. As a result, enterprises are able to bring new ideas to production within a matter of minutes or hours rather than weeks and months, resulting in a greater rate of innovation and competitiveness. In the same way that the first modern factories became more efficient by outsourcing manual labour to robots and machines, automated processes of this kind are paving the way for a more efficient cloud-native future. As budgets tighten, this is especially important.
2.Convenience and resilience
Built with resilience in mind, cloud-native security is enhanced because such applications are designed along with security experts on board. Businesses have a better chance of dealing with the aftermath of a cyber-attack within a certain container while the rest of the application is unaffected by it.
What’s more, software updates can be carried out whilst applications remain online, and capacity can be adapted (expanded or reduced) depending on what’s happening with demand, without the need for any infrastructure planning or provisioning
The forecast
So, that’s the forecast for 2023– bright, with a 100% chance of cloud. Fundamentally, cloud offerings will remain a popular choice this year due to their efficiency, flexibility and scalability. In times of economic crisis (which we are very much in), it’s more important than ever to adopt the right solutions, to streamline and improve your business’ workflows. Getting cloud ‘right’ will ensure that you’re better equipped to not only survive troubled times, but to flourish.
Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.