Businesses worldwide have transitioned from using traditional approaches to enhance their processes and have widely adopted cloud computing tools to improve efficiency. Based on estimates from Fortune Business Insights, the cloud technology market was valued at $587 billion in 2023 and was expected to project to $676 billion in 2024. The same study finds that cloud technology in 2034 is expected to show a value of $2.29 billion, with a CAGR of 16 per cent. This significant growth in cloud computing trends highlights the increasing reliance on cloud-based solutions across sectors, because of the fact that cloud platforms provide scalability, cost savings and flexibility. Businesses are also beginning to stay more conscious of the environmental impact of technologies, leading them to adopt green cloud computing strategies.
But what exactly is cloud computing? Simply put, it refers to the delivery of computing services over the internet, known as “the cloud”, by utilising storage, processing power, databases and software. In the past, organizations depended on in-house hardware servers. However, through the widespread use of this technology, accessing and managing resources is allowed remotely to enable data management and record keeping. By embracing this technology, organizations can scale infrastructure as needed, to improve accessibility and decrease costs, while simultaneously ensuring data and services are readily available to users. Companies also find that it gives flexibility in resource allocation, rapid innovation and scalability.
Cloud computing most often offers the following characteristics:
- Resource Pooling: Resources within a cloud infrastructure are dynamically split up and allocated upon request. This ensures optimization for maximum usage because the cloud host’s physical machines are dynamically allocated.
- Measured Service: Using cloud services allows users to retain detailed metrics and analysis to notify usage costs. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) informs of the usage for each service category for hourly time frames. These kinds of cloud services use a pay-as-you-go model, where customers are charged based on their usage of computing resources.
- On-demand self-service: Cloud services offer APIs which users can utilize, in order to access resources, as well as to enable scaling.
- Elasticity: Elasticity allows cloud infrastructure to dynamically scale resources according to traffic demands. This can be done according to a per-machine basis, wherein resource allocations are increased to maximize machine resources that are present, or on a multi-machine basis, which means an application automatically scales to a multi networked machine.
- Network access: Traditional hardware location is an issue when delivering resources for end users. Cloud computing solves this problem by giving a globally distributed ‘physical hardware’ that lets organizations provision their location-targeted hardware.
By understanding these concepts on what make up the characteristics of cloud platforms, the next section of this newsletter will transition to delve into the popular discoveries and cloud computing trends which were popularized in 2024.
Emerging Cloud Computing Trends of 2024
Cloud computing trends have evolved from a technology disrupter into a required component to boost competitiveness for the upcoming decade. As mentioned, this technology will help both businesses and individuals in scaling, collaboration and innovation. This technology has already reshaped many of the industries of today and will continue to have a major impact in the upcoming years. This section will focus on the main achievements of cloud technologies in 2024, highlighting key advancements in how the technology helped drive growth and foster new opportunities across sectors.
Multi and Hybrid Cloud Strategies
As organisations attempt to achieve agility in work processes, multi and hybrid cloud strategies have proven to be a dominant trend in 2024. This is shown by the many increasing businesses beginning to adopt these strategies to make seamless workflows, as reported during the Fierce Network Summit. A multi-cloud approach uses various cloud environments, while hybrid cloud technologies combine private and public services. These multiple cloud environments allow businesses to prevent vendor lock-in, letting them be flexible in selecting the best-suited service based on requirements. Multi-cloud strategies also allow operations to be durable from attacks, because distribution workloads across many platforms reduces the risk of a single point of failure. This means if one platform is compromised, others can continue functioning without disruption.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
AI and ML have been making strides since their inception, and with their growing integration with cloud computing, businesses leverage the means through which data and automation are used. 2024 has seen the integration of AI/ML technologies with cloud technologies, by using hybrid cloud strategies and Platform-as-a-Service to streamline AI workloads and AI applications respectively, as reported by BACS. The same report from BACS has also gone on to highlight how important innovations have emerged, such as specialized hardware offered by cloud services (GPU’s and TPU’s) to manage AI workloads, and Scalable Storage Solutions to provide AI applications the capacity to store large amounts of data. There are many other applications where AI and cloud computing are embedded, the key points are given below:
- In UK Business: Top cloud service providers in the UK are integrating AI to offer advanced analytics and machine learning services, for instance, the NHS uses AI and cloud computing to manage patient data. It uses predictive analytics for personalized treatments, outbreak management and process optimization. Large amounts of data are processed rapidly, with the help of AI.
- Optimizing Cloud Resources: AI can help optimize cloud resources by improving the usage of resources, decreasing waste and reducing costs. Taking the UK as an example again, AI-enabled cloud platforms monitor energy consumption, based on which, predictions are made to ensure cost-effective and stable energy supply.
- Cybersecurity of Data: Cloud platforms leverage AI technology to be able to identify abnormalities and suspicious behaviour. Taking the UK as an example, the financial industry uses AI to evaluate transaction activity to sound the alarm if fraud is detected before it can happen. Banks use AI powered cloud systems in order to spot scams more effectively.
Integration of Cloud Computing with Edge Computing
Edge Computing is quickly gaining traction on the path to becoming a significant piece in traditional cloud computing, especially in industries which require instant data processing in real-time with low latency. This rise is made evident from its 14 percent increase from 2023 and predicted estimations of reaching $228 billion, based on studies conducted by the market research organization IDC. With edge computing, data can be processed closer to the source, such as through local data centres or Internet of Things devices. This is the alternative to having dependence on centralized cloud servers. With this decentralized model, bandwidth is preserved and latency is reduced, which makes it most suited in fields such as AI, IoT and autonomous vehicles.
By adopting edge computing using cloud technology, businesses can accomplish a seamless flow of data, utilizing the cloud for extensive analytics and edge computing simultaneously, with localized processing. As mentioned, businesses are adopting edge computing at a rapid rate to improve their efficiency in operations and allow new use cases, like real time monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Serverless Computing
Serverless computing is a critical component still contributing to shaping the application development fields, by providing a cost-effective and scalable approach where developers can put their mind to just building and deploying features without caring about infrastructure. Operational costs are reduced as a result, along with resourced adjustments from demand. DevOps teams are adopting serverless computing to accelerate deployment cycles and make infrastructure management simpler. Through the integration of DevOps practices, security is also guaranteed in its stages of development and also ensures no obstacles to innovation. Tools like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions have become more popular this year for this matter in streamlining continuous integration and delivery.
Cloud Security with the Zero Trust Architecture
Just as cloud adoption surged immensely this year, security has also emerged as a main priority for businesses. Traditional security models are being replaced with the Zero Trust Architectures, based on the idea of “never trust, always verify”, The approach assumes that threats could appear from internal and external sources, which would need stringent identity authentication for each user and device that accesses resources. Cloud service providers are including Zero Trust frameworks in their platforms, by incorporating multi factor authentication, encryption and micro segmentation.
Sustainability with Green Cloud Computing
As more global leaders and environment-conscious individuals bring awareness to the state of the world’s climate, sustainability has become a key focus in cloud computing for 2024, with providers implementing green practices in order to reduce the carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency. This includes the utilization of renewable energy, efficient data centres and sustainable hardware, in order to adhere to the global sustainability goals and appeal with environmentally conscious stakeholders. Given are the key trends shaping the green cloud computing trends in 2024:
- Renewable Energy Investments: Cloud service providers are increasingly switching to solar and wind power to run data centres, decrease the usage of fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions
- Energy Efficient Infrastructure: Improvements in hardware, software and AI-powered optimization make data centres more energy efficient using virtualization and better cooling techniques
- Transparency and Reporting: Cloud service providers are publishing detailed reports on their sustainability, letting businesses follow informed decisions about environmental impact. This transparency is a hallmark of Green Cloud Computing efforts, encouraging businesses to work with services aligned with their sustainability goals.
Public Cloud Computing Tools
A ‘public cloud’ is a kind of cloud technology that provides its services over the Internet. They are owned by and operate under third-party cloud services, like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Amazon Web Services continues to remain the biggest cloud service provider in the public space, with 32 per cent of the market, followed by Microsoft Azure with a 23 per cent market share.
Amazon Web Services provides various services, ranging from computing power, and storage with databases among other advanced technologies such as AI and ML. The cloud service is known well for its ability to allow businesses to scale to all sizes and have access to resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. Its low latency and availability make it a popular choice for businesses to publish applications globally.
Microsoft is the second most popular global cloud technology which delivers solutions to enable building, testing and the deployment of applications using Microsoft data centers. Azure’s services securely embed itself with other Microsoft products, making it a desirable trait which benefits businesses which use Windows Server, SQL Server and Office 365. As a result of its vast services provided, also containing AI, virtual machines, DevOps tools and analytics, organizations are encouraged to rapidly innovate and automate tasks.
Concluding Thoughts
To conclude, keeping up with cloud computing trends has become essential for businesses looking to enhance efficiency and scalability. As the market keeps growing with trends like multi-cloud strategies, AI integration and green cloud computing, developers adapt by innovating powerful solutions for businesses in order to stay competitive and innovative.
To harness the full potential of these advancements, take advantage of our services today at CogentIBS, and transform your business with our secure, cutting edge and scalable solutions.
Written by Larisa Dsilva