IT Management Consultancy
The Latest Cloud Technology Trends
Six most crucial cloud computing trends for 2023 and beyond.
The ongoing mass adoption of cloud computing has been a key driver of many of the most transformative tech trends, including artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and remote and hybrid working.
Going forward, we can expect to see it becoming an enabler of even more technologies, including virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), the metaverse, cloud gaming, and even quantum computing.
Cloud computing makes this possible by removing the need to invest in buying and owning the expensive infrastructure required for these intensive computing applications. Instead, cloud service providers make it available “as-a-service,” running on their own servers and data centres. It also means companies can, to some extent, avoid the hassle of hiring or training a highly specialized workforce if they want to take advantage of these breakthrough technologies.
According to Forbes, in 2023 we can expect to see companies continuing to leverage cloud services in order to access new and innovative technologies as well as drive efficiencies in their own operations and processes.
Here’s a rundown of six of the trends that we believe will have the most impact.
Six trends that we believe
1. Increased Security Concerns
92% of organizations host at least one part of their IT infrastructure in the cloud.
And migration to the cloud is continuing to accelerate.
In fact, 63% of companies will host most (or all) of their IT infrastructure in the cloud in the next 18 months (up from approximately 41% in 2022).
And this dependence on the cloud has given way to a rise in security concerns.
It is not surprising that security is getting more attention, considering that cloud breaches are becoming more common.
98% of organizations have experienced at least one cloud data breach in the last 18 months.
More alarmingly, 67% reported over three cloud data breaches in the same period.
This is a concerning number, considering that only around 20% of companies dealt with cloud security issues in 2020.
Approximately 69% of companies say that data leakage/loss is the most common cloud security concern.
2. Increased investment in cloud security and resilience
Migrating to the cloud brings huge opportunities, efficiencies, and convenience but also exposes companies and organizations to a new range of cybersecurity threats. On top of this, the growing pile of legislation around how businesses can store and use personal data means that the risk of fines or (even worse) losing the trust of their customers is a real problem.
As a result, spending on cyber security and building resilience against everything from data loss to the impact of a pandemic on global business will become even more of a priority during the coming year. However, as many companies look to cut costs in the face of a forecasted economic recession, the emphasis is likely to be on the search for innovative and cost-efficient ways of maintaining cyber security in order to get the most “bang for the buck.” This will mean greater use of AI and predictive technology designed to spot threats before they cause problems, as well as an increase in the use of managed “security-as-a-service” providers in 2023.
3. Multi-cloud is an increasingly popular strategy
Hybrid-cloud refers to an infrastructure that blends multiple different types of clouds (for example, companies that use one or more public clouds and one or more private clouds have a hybrid-cloud architecture).
It also prevents organizations from becoming too tied in to one particular ecosystem – a situation that can create challenges when cloud service providers change the applications they support or stop supporting particular applications altogether. And it helps to create redundancy that reduces the chance of system errors or downtime from causing a critical failure of business operations.
If 2022 was the year of hybrid cloud, then 2023 could be the year that businesses come to understand the advantages of diversifying their services across a number of cloud providers. This is a strategy known as taking a multi-cloud approach, and it offers a number of advantages, including improved flexibility and security.
Both multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud are infrastructures that utilize more than one cloud system.
So what is the difference between these two approaches?
Multi-cloud refers to an infrastructure that uses multiple clouds that belong to the same system (for instance, companies that use two or more public clouds or two or more private clouds have a multi-cloud strategy).
76% of organizations have adopted a multi-cloud strategy. This number is estimated to grow to 86% by 2024.
The larger the organization, the more likely it adopts a multi-cloud strategy.
94% of large enterprises (>5,000 employees) utilize a multi-cloud infrastructure.
This is mainly because larger firms get better results from this system (64% of large companies say that multi-cloud has been a success).
A hybrid-cloud infrastructure is used by around 80% of organizations (this is up from 58% in 2019), and 43% use multiple public and multiple private clouds.
Improved scalability and control, increased agility, reduced costs, and better support for remote workers are some of the reasons companies implement this approach.
And the adoption of this architecture is expected to continue growing, considering that 66% of IT professionals see hybrid-cloud solutions as a permanent destination for IT infrastructure.
Adopting a multi-cloud infrastructure means moving away from potentially damaging business strategies such as building applications and processes solely around one particular cloud platform, e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. The growing popularity of containerized applications means that in the event of changes to service levels, or more cost-efficient solutions becoming available from different providers, applications can be quickly ported across to new platforms.
While back in 2020, most companies (70 percent) said they were still tied to one cloud service provider, reports have found that 84% of mid-to-large companies will have adopted a multi-cloud strategy by 2023, positioning it as one of the year’s defining trends in cloud computing.
4. AWS Loses Market Share
As of Q4 2021, Amazon Web Services accounted for the largest public cloud market share at 33%.
Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud round up the top three at 21% and 10%, respectively.
In 2019, AWS accounted for 44.6% of the market, and this number fell to 40.8% in 2020.
These figures show that, while still at the top spot, AWS is quickly losing market share in this space.
Furthermore, AWS has already lost the first spot with some specific cloud users.
According to Flexera’s 2022 State of the Cloud report, Azure has surpassed AWS among light and moderate cloud users and is quickly shrinking the gap with heavy users. And for the first time in Flexera’s report’s 11-year history, IT pros said that they preferred Azure to AWS as their public cloud provider in 2021.
Supporting tools are a significant reason behind this trend. More IT professionals preferred using Azure Resource Manager over AWS CloudFormation.
As a result, spending on cyber security and building resilience against everything from data loss to the impact of a pandemic on global business will become even more of a priority during the coming year. However, as many companies look to cut costs in the face of a forecasted economic recession, the emphasis is likely to be on the search for innovative and cost-efficient ways of maintaining cyber security in order to get the most “bang for the buck.” This will mean greater use of AI and predictive technology designed to spot threats before they cause problems, as well as an increase in the use of managed “security-as-a-service” providers in 2023.
5. Low-code and no-code cloud services
Tools and platforms that allow anybody to create applications and to use data to solve problems without getting their hands dirty with writing computer code are increasingly popular. This category of low-code and no-code solutions includes tools for building websites, web applications and designing just about any kind of digital solutions that companies may need. Low-code and no-code solutions are even becoming available for creating AI-powered applications, drastically lowering the barriers to entry for companies wanting to leverage AI and ML. Many of these services are provided via the cloud – meaning users can access them as-a-service without having to own the powerful computing infrastructure needed to run them themselves. Tools like Figma, Airtable, and Zoho allow users to carry out tasks that previously would have required coding experience, such as designing websites, automating spreadsheet tasks, and building web applications, and we see providing services like this as an area where cloud technology will become increasingly useful in 2023 and beyond.
6. Cloud Computing Goes To The Edge
Edge computing is a framework in which data is stored and processed as close to the original device as possible.
traditional cloud computing frameworks, data travels from the device to the data centre and back.
Waiting for data to make this “journey” is what causes latency.
And edge computing’s main selling point is that it reduces latency because data is processed right where the data is being generated.
One significant driver of this trend is the seemingly ever-growing number of IoT devices.
Estimates show that there will be approximately 27 billion IoT devices by 2025. These devices will produce over 50 zettabytes of data.
Data is stored and processed as close to the original device as possible.
And an edge architecture handles this flow of data more effectively than other solutions (at a latency rate of 1 millisecond).
Additionally, because this framework mitigates the need for data to travel long distances, it also helps secure devices from cyberattacks.
Gartner estimates that organizations that isolate and segment their networks through an edge architecture will experience 25% fewer successful cyberattacks.
These benefits are crucial reasons behind rising edge computing adoption rates among businesses.
Overall, spending on edge computing will reach $274 billion by 2025, up from $150 billion in 2021.
