Trends in Cloud Computing for 2016 and Beyond

Trends in Cloud Computing for 2016 and Beyond

Before 2015 has ended, Cloud strategy had been adopted by 82% organizations. This is a huge growth, when compared to 74% from 2014. By 2017, Cloud computing is anticipated to touch the 250USD billion mark. It is strange to think that Cloud computing was dismissed by industry experts as just another technological fad, which comes with tons of hype but little practical worth. However, the Cloud technology has truly arrived today and has been acknowledged widely by companies as well as analysts as a driving force for the modern IT scene. It is changing the way upgrades are dealt with, software packages are deployed and data centers are created. But where is Cloud computing heading? Check out some of the newest trends to be seen in this domain in 2016.

Cloud Automation

In 2015, Cloud technology got its business-level automation - which was driven by the intricacy of creation and management of cloud infrastructure surpassing the capacity of management services and software to keep it in control. In the coming years, it is expected that Cloud will not include developers writing low-level codes to automate infrastructural components. Rather, it will include business-level automation. Companies will put in policies through which they wish to manage their business systems. Intelligent software would be used for the implementation of such policies for supporting enterprises.

Mobile-based Cloud Computing

With mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones becoming increasingly popular and having a significant effect on the world of business, mobile-based cloud computing was a natural consequence. Rather than managing their office tasks from desks, 21^st century workers rely on their mobile devices to handle much of the job – even from their home or while on the move.

With the mobile workforce demanding more flexibility, cloud computing is becoming more mobile-based. Cloud-based applications can be accessed anywhere and at any time, which is perfect for workers who are on the move at all times. Instead of having to use their desktop PCs at the office, workers can just log into a software with an internet-enabled tablet, smart phone or some other digital device, and execute the task in Google Cloud.

An increasing number of companies are waking up to the ease of utilizing mobile-based cloud computing apps for business data management, and their advantages in boosting productivity. For instance, analysts predicted that handheld devices would take over 1/3^rd of business intelligence functionality within 2013. This has come true, and is going to grow further with time.

Hybrid Cloud Computing

Hybrid Cloud Computing means using a combination of infrastructures, physical applications and services along with private and public cloud services. It is a unified model that comprises of internal as well as external cloud platforms, which can be used for strategic advantage according to the needs of business. It is expected that companies would concentrate in this area. New productivity tools are already being developed, keeping the needs of Cloud users in mind.

Cloud Services Brokerage

It is expected to get more popularity and favor in the coming years. It includes a service provider helping in cloud computing consumption. The trend is gaining more momentum given that users look for cloud services that are not dominated by IT bureaucracy. However, even IT can be a Cloud Service Broker (CSR) itself by developing flexible tools and processes, which can be convenient to adopt for business users.

Social Cloud Computing

Collaboration on the Cloud will be increased further with social tools. Apps cloud-based are not simply more flexible as compared to standard on-site apps; these can also be more social. This is very essential, given that users like to have better collaboration with micro-blogging, chat and other social tools. As users are more habituated to such tools and begin to prefer them more over email and other run of the mill tools, consumers will like to use those for communicating with leads, peers and customers. Social tools are expected to boost the level of collaboration.

Cloud application will get more social with time, and is likely to be a key component in the way business data is managed by companies. Given that Cloud Computing is natively internet-based and regularly upgrades are rolled out in an automatic way to cloud solutions, it has the capacity for fast evolution.

Secure Cloud Computing and services

Increased user participation on the cloud are also giving rise to security challenges. 2016 is expected to be the year when Cloud safety is taken more seriously. There are plenty of challenges to meet as of now. Host names, physical locations of documents and IP addresses have to be a part of security audits and assessments, and there is the need to move past archaic security analysis frameworks.

Cloud Computing and services have exposed a lot of security loopholes and issues. This is a dynamic platform and the ever-changing form makes old tools and methodologies useless. Companies are expected to be more serious about perimeter assessment, vulnerability management, intrusion detection and other things.

Secure Cloud Computing and services are the need of the hour, and things are expected to be safer by the end of 2016 and beyond. 2016 is already witnessing the development and implementation of many security standards for Cloud. There will be a security standards baseline developed for Cloud technology, which would ensure safer migration to the cloud. More organizations will feel safer to move business data to the Cloud in the coming months.

Simpler Cloud Management and Computing

2015 has already seen the craze for self-service data prep and data integration solutions. However, 2016 is expected to witness simpler tactics for pushing data from online platforms and organizations into Cloud-based data ecosystems. Moving business data to the Cloud can be as easy as copy-pasting information across documents. Data movement into the Cloud ecosystem without technical knowhow is possible, and is soon to be actualized. There will be simple solutions that can allow business users to drag and drop data as easily as it can get. The complexities associated with data transformation, integration and staging would be done away with.

If you are further interested in reading about Trends in Cloud Computing especially with IoT, here is an interesting article on dspacecloud.org Cloud and Internet of Things