Future of Cloud Computing? Trends, Innovations to Watch in 2024

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Cloud computing is already reshaping many industries, and its impact will only grow. It’s revolutionizing how data is stored and processed and has many benefits. 

A recently conducted study has brought to light an intriguing statistic: in many organizations, cloud-based workloads account for a remarkable 75% of the total load.

With current trends like edge computing, SASE adoption, and Kubernetes, you should be aware of plenty of innovations. 

This guide will examine the most significant cloud computing trends and discuss their impact on AI and IoT industries. 

Edge Computing

Edge computing allows data to be kept and processed closer to the actual location where it’s needed, reducing reliance on a centralized data processing warehouse or storing data in the cloud. This scenario is ideal for situations where bandwidth or connectivity is limited. 

For example, rural locations often have less connectivity, leading to slow response times and lagging. Edge computing minimizes data transmission, leading to decreased bandwidth requirements, enhanced response times, reduced latency, and diminished dependence on network connectivity. 

Edge computing will also have a prominent role in the continuing growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). This is because it’ll be vital for processing and analyzing vast volumes of data IoT devices generate. By ensuring this data can be processed and stored locally, edge computing helps improve its functionality. 

The physical hardware used in edge computing is called an edge device. This includes things like smart displays, IoT gateways, and point-of-sales terminals. These are situated at the network’s edge and can collect and process data and then execute it without needing much input from the rest of the network. 

Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a model for hosting applications and services that don’t rely on any physical servers. Instead, a cloud provider manages the infrastructure needed to run code, and application code is executed in response to events. 

As users do not need to manage the underlying infrastructure, it’s a cost-effective and less time-consuming way to build and run applications. It means that users can be concerned with something other than configuration, capacity planning, fault tolerance, maintenance, virtual machines (VMs), physical servers, or scaling of containers. 

Serverless computing is still in its infancy, but it’s already offered by cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, IBM Cloud, and Google Cloud.

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Strategies

A hybrid cloud combines a public cloud (provided over the public internet by a third party) and a private cloud (on-site infrastructure). This enables applications and data to consistently move between the two cloud environments, which has several benefits, such as reducing latency issues.

A multi-cloud strategy involves using several cloud services from the same provider or multiple providers. A multi-cloud doesn’t necessarily include a private cloud and can be purely made up of public clouds. This model is often used to ensure business continuity and as a result of regulatory and geographic governance. 

The adoption of both models is sure to continue accelerating in 2024 and beyond. Multi-cloud will likely become the favored cloud networking environment for supporting decentralized services, assets, and workforces. 

A hybrid cloud will be essential to the rollout of edge computing. Organizations continue exploring how it can reduce costs and improve disaster recovery. 

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Adoption

Another trend to look out for is the continuing adoption of SASE, which provides IT security to cloud-based networks. 

SASE uses a combination of technologies such as secure web gateway (SWG), software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), next-generation firewall (NGFW), cloud access security broker (CASB), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA) to provide secure access to resources and applications. 

It integrates security functions directly into the cloud network to protect it against the increasingly complex cyber risks that arise from remote working and the growing adoption of cloud services. 

Due to this, SASE will become more and more important as time goes on.  You should consider using a VPN service to ensure secure and private cloud connectivity. Using a VPN is vital when accessing cloud resources remotely, and reputable VPNs provide reliable and fast service for cloud computing professionals.

Kubernetes

Although Kubernetes has been around for a decade, it’s now a key enabler of cloud-native technologies, and its adoption is set to increase rapidly. 

Google developed Kubernetes in 2014, but it is now under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It’s an open-source container orchestration platform, and its features include infrastructure abstraction, automated operations, and built-in commands for various tasks. 

It’s able to manage device clusters outside centralized data centers, which is one of the reasons it’ll be vital to the growth of edge computing. It currently dominates cloud-native container orchestration, and as its adoption continues, this dominance will keep increasing. 

The Impact of Cloud Computing on IoT and AI

There are several ways in which cloud computing affects the AI and IoT industries. 

AI

  • Cloud providers now offer AI services. This means businesses don’t need to build and maintain AI infrastructure to access AI capabilities. 
  • Cloud computing increasingly provides the cost-efficiency, scalability, and security AI applications require to perform and grow. 
  • Cloud services like VMs with GPUs, which are optimized for AI workloads, are more in demand than ever to accelerate AI tasks. 

IoT

  • Cloud computing provides the tools and infrastructure needed to store, analyze, and gain insights from the huge amount of data produced by connected IoT devices.
  • It also reduces the costs of running IoT devices by reducing the need for physical resources when enterprises want to scale their infrastructure. 
  • The IoT ecosystem relies on cloud computing for connectivity and communication between IoT devices, people, and processes.
  • IoT applications rely on cloud computing for storage and computing power, allowing custom IoT solutions and real-time data exchanges. 

Final Thoughts

The field of cloud computing is rapidly evolving, and there are plenty of exciting trends and innovations to keep your eye on. Trends like edge computing, serverless computing, SASE adoption, and Kubernetes are all set to play a major role in the future of cloud computing.

Moreover, cloud computing’s transformative impact on industries like AI and IoT underscores its pivotal role in driving digital transformation and fostering technological advancements across diverse sectors. 

Keeping abreast of these trends and harnessing the potential of cloud computing technologies will be crucial for organizations seeking to stay competitive and agile in an increasingly digital world.

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