Gartner predicts that the cloud market will reach $206.2 billion in 2019, with continued strong growth as more organizations devote their IT budgets to adopting cloud computing technologies. The cloud is set to evolve in several major ways in 2019, bringing even more benefits to companies that are willing to embrace these services for large parts of their operations. Here are a few of the most important changes.
Greater Competition Among Big Name Cloud Providers
Microsoft, Google and other competitors to Amazon Web Services continue to carve their own sections out of the market by identifying underserved areas and expanding their services. While AWS is still the company to beat, it’s no longer such a clear cut choice when you’re evaluating cloud service providers. This competition also drives the price down, which can make a big difference if you’re a heavy user of any of these services.
The Importance of Service Meshes
Many organizations rely on microservices for their application development and need better ways to manage them. Service meshes such as Istio and App Mesh give your company a way to better manage all of the microservices through a dedicated infrastructure layer. It makes it possible to have improved communication between the services, resulting in smoother operation.
The Growth of Application Platforms
Software as a Service applications are moving to the next logical stage in their development: application platforms. Many big names in the cloud world are starting to add offerings to create better integration for developers, as well as giving them the tools they need to do more with their services. By opening up the possibility to become a development platform, many vendors are getting more mileage out of their SaaS products.
Open Source Acquisitions
Another trend in the cloud world is companies picking up open source products. One of the biggest moves in the hybrid cloud section of the market is IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat. That move has put them solidly in contention for hybrid cloud leader. It’s a fully open cloud solution, which gives it a competitive advantage over other players in this market. Now everyone needs to catch up and react to this sudden change, rather than planning out their moves well in advance.
How These Changes Help Your Business
There’s a lot going on in the cloud world, but what does this mean on a practical level for your business? When you understand the path that 2019 is taking with the cloud market, you can better position yourself to make the best strategic decisions for your organization.
Continued Cost Reduction
More competition means that your bottom line is going to get better and better with cloud spending. While your company may end up spending more of your budget on cloud services, you’re getting a lot more out of it. You can expand the technology that you’re currently using or keep an eye out for new offerings that offer significant benefits for your long-term goals.
More Tools for Developers
The shift of SaaS applications into development platforms is good news for your developers. They have more to work with when they’re putting together enterprise applications, whether they’re looking for better integration or more capabilities. The development team gets access to more powerful systems and possibilities that may have not been available even a few months ago. Platforms designed for working with AI and IoT solutions also help you do more with your resources.
Granular Control Over Your Data
The hybrid cloud market is one of the fastest crowding, as organizations want more control over sensitive data in the wake of countless data breaches. Many companies operate in industries that have strict regulations on data handling, and can’t necessarily trust third-party vendors to follow all of the requirements for compliance.
In some cases, it’s simply more convenient to keep the data on-premises, especially for local operations that are sensitive to latency. With companies paying more attention to data privacy and protection, the hybrid cloud provides the middle ground that you need in this situation.
Legislation such as EU’s GDPR also play a part in boosting hybrid cloud adoption and making it a desirable choice over a 100 percent public cloud infrastructure.
Improved Insights Into Your Operations
Data silos continue to fall left and right as vendors focus on integration opportunities with different clouds and technologies. You can bring in AI to help you process data or connect your two frequently used cloud platforms for data sharing. The company gets greater visibility into your data, so you get the big picture view with any decision that you make.
Predictive analytics also play a role in helping you create strategies that revolve around optimizing your operations. If you can see the likely outcome of each plan, then you can focus your resources on the opportunities that can yield the best results.
Is your organization prepared for 2019’s cloud landscape? You have a lot of potential to cut your costs and improve your operations, but you have to be prepared to make the right moves. These trends give you a good idea of what to focus on when you start looking at your IT budget and planning around that.
How to Implement a Cloud Computing Strategy in 2019
Cloud Computing won’t net you any benefits unless you create and implement it as part of your business’ IT strategy. A Managed IT Service provider who specializes in cloud computing services for businesses can develop a strategy to implement cloud computing that works seamlessly with your business’ unique challenges and goals.