Cloud adoption has skyrocketed over the past five years. But what’s next?
Companies have been turning to the cloud for years. But there’s a new wave of cloud adoption on the rise.
Cloud computing promised simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Despite those promises, many large enterprises chose to maintain their on-premises infrastructures and legacy hardware.
It’s a different story today. Forrester Analyst Dave Bartoletti noted in a recent report that “Enterprises with big budgets, data centers, and complex applications are now looking at cloud as a viable place to run core business applications.”
What does that mean for you?
Here are a few trends that Forrester recommends you keep an eye on when it comes to cloud computing.
1. The Rise of Regional Providers
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google cloud are synonymous with cloud today. But the cloud is more than just the mega providers today. Regional cloud providers and community cloud computing are growing in popularity.
But which cloud solution best fits the needs of your company?
That depends on your needs. You might need more than one cloud service to meet them. Forrester recommends keeping your options open.
2. Improved Cost Management
Potential cost savings makes the cloud an attractive option for IT infrastructures. However, to gain savings from the cloud, you need a clear strategy and the right tools.
For many CIOs, it can be an uphill battle to keep cloud costs in check. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures, in particular, send costs out of control.
There are tools that can help you manage your infrastructure, no matter how complex it gets. Performance management software can make a big difference. This is especially true when it comes to avoiding costly overprovisioning and outages.
3. Refactor Applications
The cloud has unique challenges.
Before migrating to the cloud, your developer needs to understand how an application works and how it’s going to work in the cloud. A lift-and-shift strategy might not cut it. It’s a better practice to refactor the application and build it to take advantage of cloud elasticity.
4. Hyper-converged Infrastructure
CIOs hesitate to move private information to third-party vendors. It’s a risky move.
Both the public and private cloud require advanced virtualization, standardization, automation, self service access, and resource monitoring. This adds up to significant costs and frustration.
It’s a good idea to consider hyper-converged infrastructures to better manage the cloud.
Hyper-converged infrastructures allow you to manage integrated technologies from a single toolset. This helps companies get the cloud up and running efficiently.
5. More Containers
Containers allow developers to move software from one environment to another.
There’s a lot of benefit to using containers. You’ll be able to maintain reliability during the move.
Use of containers is expected to grow during the next wave of cloud adoption. CIO.com predicts that “Developers will consume them directly and often build their own stacks to power microservices development.”
6. Enterprise Apps in the Cloud
CIOs are getting more comfortable with the cloud. Today, some enterprises even host critical applications in the public cloud. For instance, Coca-Cola, General Mills, HTC, and Best Buy have all moved portions of their operations to the cloud.
This move by large enterprises paves the way for smaller companies to commit to cloud adoption.