By Karan Kirpalani, Vice President – Managed Cloud, Infrastructure Services, NTT Ltd. in India
In 2023, the cloud remained the pivotal platform for digital transformation and was a preferred choice for businesses looking to innovate and scale quickly. This year, this is continuing and accelerating further, as the cloud becomes even more mainstream.
Here is our perspective of some of the top five cloud computing trends that will continue to rule 2024:
#1 Cloud momentum expected to be strong:
In 2024, the cloud momentum is expected to be strong as more businesses discover the potential of the cloud. This is corroborated by many independent firms too. Globally, according to Gartner, end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.7% to a total of $591.8 billion in 2023, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. This is higher than the 18.8% growth forecast for 2022. Research firm, IDC is predicting that India’s public cloud services market will reach $10.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 24.1% for the period, 2020 to 2025. Besides startups and enterprises, we expect cloud adoption to accelerate in SMBs and public sector enterprises.
#2 Geo-political considerations may inspire the growth of regional cloud ecosystems:
In 2023, enterprises will seek comfort in regional cloud ecosystems as concerns related to political issues, regulations, and risks arise. This will encourage the creation of regional or localised cloud-based ecosystems to reduce the possibility of lock-in and try to maintain a level of control and sovereignty. Gaia-X, a project initiated by Europe to create a federated and secure data infrastructure for countries from Europe, is an example that explains the rationale behind the creation of regional cloud ecosystems.
#3 Cloud-first models will become the norm:
In the future, as more small and medium enterprises adopt the cloud, a cloud-first approach will become the norm than the exception. By 2025, Gartner estimates that over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms, up from 30% in 2021. We believe that the cloud-first model will be the first choice, as more organisations realise that the economics, innovation, and scale that can be achieved with cloud-based models cannot be achieved by on-premises models.
#4 Sustainability will be a major factor driving cloud decisions:
Sustainability is a board-level focus issue now, and almost every cloud service provider is focusing on sustainability. All the major cloud service providers have outlined a huge number of initiatives for achieving their objective of a zero-carbon cloud, as the choice of a cloud service provider may be dependent on the service provider’s green initiatives. This is corroborated by Gartner, which states that by 2025, the carbon emissions of hyper-scale cloud services will be a top three criterion in cloud purchase decisions.
#5 Edge data centers will be key for realising the benefits of the cloud:
During the pandemic, many organisations realised the huge promise and potential of edge data centers. In 2023, as more organisations seek the benefits of cloud computing in smaller tier-2 or tier-3 towns, edge data centers will be increasingly preferred, due to the inherent benefits of reducing latency and improving performance by processing information closer to the devices that consume them.
Gartner, for instance, has predicted that around 75% of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed outside a traditional centralised data center by 2025.
In summary, 2024 is gearing up for more exciting changes in the tech world, especially with the ongoing influence of cloud computing trends. Businesses are expected to jump on board, discovering the power of the cloud for innovation and growth. As more companies embrace a ‘cloud-first’ mindset, the coming year will bring a wave of new and practical applications. Sustainability and edge data centers are in the spotlight, making 2024 a pivotal year for the widespread adoption of cloud-based platforms. Get ready for a tech revolution that puts cloud computing at the forefront of IT and business trends.
Read More: 5 ways cloud computing will disrupt organizations