Top five predictions for cloud technologies in 2017

This year saw cloud technology come of age as an enabler of business transformation, providing organisations of all sizes with a competitive advantage by enabling them to access and process vast amounts of data. The cloud has a critical role to play in accelerating the data revolution by providing the infrastructure that enables us to generate, use, store and analyse huge volumes of information that have the power to drive disruptive business change.

 

However, the transition to cloud technologies is not a smooth overnight move. CIOs are rightly approaching the shift as a gradual, multi-year journey. As well as requiring time and investment to transfer complex data systems, businesses are also looking to develop specific training programmes and attract employees with the necessary skills.

 

As this move to the cloud accelerates, here are the top five cloud trends we see playing out in 2017:

 

Businesses will embrace a hybrid world

Many CIOs are not able, or are reluctant, to move to the cloud in one seamless jump. They are instead looking to adopt a hybrid approach split between on-premises solutions and cloud environments. For these businesses with complex legacy IT systems, data is typically fragmented across local servers and cloud services. However, to stay efficient within a hybrid environment, businesses need solutions that work on-premises and in the cloud.

 

In 2017 we will see a new breed of agile cloud software become mainstream, allowing organisations to connect to data stored anywhere – and crucially, simplifying  complex hybrid environments so that it functions as one cohesive system. These hybrid ecosystems – of data, software and infrastructure – will become a reality for most large businesses.

 

Cloud service providers will ease challenges of data regulations

Complying with new government policies on data privacy and sovereignty can be time consuming and expensive for global companies, especially as these regulations are constantly being reviewed and updated. For example, in 2015 the European Union ruled against Safe Harbor, requiring international companies to revamp many of their compliance efforts. Then in July 2016, the Privacy Shield agreement again demanded new efforts from businesses with data spanning the Atlantic. These regulations pose a constant challenge and many companies are looking to major cloud providers for support.

 

As cloud providers operate globally and maintain regional data centres that meet today’s data regulations, they present a solution for global companies to overcome these barriers. While complying with these new rules can be time and cost prohibitive for businesses, the cloud providers have teams dedicated to monitoring and planning for regulatory shifts. By leveraging cloud services, organisations can avoid having to maintain expensive local data centers and instead focus on growing their business.

 

Long-term customer success and adoption will be top priorities

Cloud software vendors are extending their focus far beyond the point of sale. Instead, cloud software vendors are extending their focus to ensure product adoption and business value. In a cloud world, software deployments require fewer initial investments of time and money.  Customers evaluating software renewals no longer have to worry about large sunk costs. As a result, this shift is positioning satisfaction rates and business value front and centre.

 

It’s no secret that sales engagements increasingly span the entire lifecycle of a buyer’s journey, which is why it’s vital for cloud vendors to focus on their customers’ long-term success, not to mention develop a strong working relationship with both IT and the business. By offering higher levels of customer support, more robust training resources, and deeper guidance on product adoption, this new timeframe is leading to mutually beneficial partnerships. From this, enterprises can realise more value from their investments, and vendors are able to build long-term customers rather than one-time buyers.

 

Flexible analytics will solve the IoT’s last-mile challenge

IoT data tends to be heterogeneous and stored across multiple systems, from Hadoop clusters to NoSQL databases. It’s no small feat to access and understand all that data. It’s therefore little wonder that the market is calling for analytical tools that seamlessly connect to and combine all those cloud-hosted data sources, enabling businesses to explore and visualise any type of data stored anywhere and maximise the value of their IoT investment.

 

Organisations across the world are deploying flexible business intelligence solutions that allow them to analyse data from multiple sources of varying formats. By joining together incongruent IoT data into a single view, businesses can also identify problem regions and underperforming services. With the solution to the “last-mile” of IoT data, they can increase efficiencies and improve their bottom line.

 

IT will change its skill set  

The continued growth in cloud technologies and increasing adoption by businesses is creating demand for specialist cloud expertise. Organisations are understandably stepping up efforts to recruit candidates with relevant cloud expertise as well as developing specific training programmes that focus on cloud security, hosted databases and infrastructure as a service.  IT is shifting its workflow, too. Since concerns like scalability and maintenance are all but taken care of with the cloud, IT departments will place a greater emphasis on agile methods that provide continuous development and delivery of projects.