Being caught in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only thing that changed this year. As the globe dealt with the pandemic, advances in cloud computing technology began to emerge. Cloud computing is the driving force not only to the world’s economy, but to its supply chain and the ability for us to hunker down and work from home as we fight the pandemic.
It’s likely that we will have to continue to deal with COVID-19 in the new year as well; however, we will be able to handle it better due to advances in cloud computing tech. In 2021, you’re likely to see improvements in cloud computing speed and effectiveness as workplaces are increasingly turning to remote working capabilities.
Additionally, there are several cloud computing trends that experts suspect will be big for 2021.
Changes for the Big 3
The Big 3 cloud computing companies currently include Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft. However, experts suggest that in 2021, China’s Alibaba Cloud will push Google Cloud out of its third place spot. Alibaba’s revenue grew by 59 percent last year. This growth has contributed to an increased need for digitalization for Chinese businesses.
Alibaba’s success over Google could be driven by Alibaba’s usefulness across businesses of all sizes whereas Google has placed more emphasis on being enterprise friendly. Even if Google is displaced from third place, experts still expect that Google Cloud will see at least a 40 percent increase in revenue itself.
Increased edge computing tech
As old technologies advance, new technologies emerge. While edge computing is far from a new concept, it is quickly gaining credit as being the “new” cloud. Experts suggest that in 2021 we will begin to see new business models that focus on utilizing edge technologies, with AI and 5G techs leading the way.
Big tech companies like IBM and Intel will likely increase their edge computing utilization and roll out cloud-like solutions that are able to be deployed anywhere in the world. Additionally, expect to see increased content delivery services and data centers that offer edge computing services.
Given our dependence on cloud computing technologies, don’t expect the concept of a centralized cloud to disappear, but rather expect to see it only get better by incorporating edge networking to make it easier for their end-users.
Data privacy + cloud migration
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the tech world as well. Data governance and compliance are likely to be a factor in 2021 due to a “perfect storm” created by a combination of more cloud usage and the pandemic.
With more companies relying on working in the cloud to continue business during the pandemic, there will be increased need for secure data migration. Therefore, before data can be moved from on premises to the cloud, IT professionals will need to ensure it is encrypted. Expect to see more regulatory legislation when it comes to data privacy and security.