Cloud computing can be found at the forefront of every organization’s digitalization initiatives today. Owing to its plethora of benefits, it has become the go-to choice for businesses across every vertical globally. In 2021, the global cloud computing market size was estimated at USD 445.3 billion and is now expected to reach USD 947.3 billion by 2026. Its rapid growth is proof of how widely the technology is being leveraged.

As cloud computing sets its feet in dynamic industries, it is subjected to rapid growth in different ways. Along with cloud computing itself being a trend, there are several trends that influence the way it is used globally. In this article, we will discuss some prominent cloud computing trends that one can expect to witness in 2022. Let’s begin.

  1. Hybrid Cloud

The multi-cloud has been around for a long time, with organizations using different types of cloud computing platforms for leveraging benefits like scalability, cost-efficiency, and flexibility. However, as business requirements changed, the drawback of disintegrated coordination that came with the multi-cloud approach became more significant. The heterogeneous architecture, although very useful at its inception, now holds less significance in the business world.

Also known as the Omni Cloud, the hybrid cloud is characterized by a homogeneous architecture. It is a complete whole that offers superior connectivity and data integration together. By fulfilling today’s needs of application portability, cross-platform alliances, streamlined connectivity, and easy real-time procurement of compute cycles, the hybrid cloud offers the advantages of differentiated services without any extreme costs.

  1. Intelligence in Cloud Computing 

Bringing intelligence into cloud computing is a growing trend that’s rapidly gaining more traction. By pairing intelligent technologies like AI, ML, and automation with cloud computing solutions, organizations can look forward to extracting meaningful insights and providing smart solutions to their clientele. Pairing cloud solutions with enterprise AI can help organizations capitalize on the collective benefits for overall organizational growth.

  • Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence 

As AI and ML offer exceptional benefits for businesses, pairing them with cloud computing offers potential benefits like better decision making, extraction of actionable insights, better insights into customer behaviors, enhanced analysis of employee performances, etc.

  • Automation

Cloud automation services are already growing rapidly, with expected market size of USD 149.9 billion by 2027. With several applications across different types of cloud platforms, automation is a trend that one can expect to sustain in the years to come.

  1. Containerization

Containerization has been a trend in the cloud computing space for a few years now. As containers have always been useful to move and manage software code, the use of containerization ensures accelerated software production with DevOps strategies. It simplifies portability between different cloud services. As a valuable approach to operating system virtualization, it enables teams to work with programs or their dependencies using isolated resource procedures.

  1. Better Security and Compliance

Security and compliance concerns have always surrounded the cloud computing space. As businesses move more of their data and procedures to cloud solutions, security concerns, and the compliance challenges increase. Cloud providers have begun responding to these concerns with better security features and compliance certifications, which is why in 2022 we can expect improved security and compliance in cloud deployments. Two noteworthy examples are SASE and DR.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) enables businesses to manage access, control it, and limit connectivity between end-user devices and cloud applications or on-premise IT infrastructure. As a cloud security infrastructure, it maintains security compliance scrupulously.

Cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) enables firms to continue working even in the case of access loss to physical infrastructure due to an outage. It leverages the power of cloud computing for data back-ups and the continued functioning of necessary processes in case of any disasters.

Security Acquisitions: Businesses demand platform-native security tools today. So, providers who cannot build them internally turn towards security acquisitions for meeting client needs and demands. As a result, security acquisitions can also be expected to rise to facilitate better security and compliance in 2022.

  1. Serverless Computing

Serverless computing, although comparatively nascent, can be expected to grow exponentially in 2022 and in years to come. With a pay-as-you-go approach, serverless computing allows organizations to pay providers only for code runs instead of a fixed bandwidth or servers. It holds providers responsible only for the management of code execution and is capable of auto-scaling as per the demand.

Serverless computing signifies immense growth and advancement in the cloud computing space, as its advent is a core characteristic of modern-day cloud computing.

  1. Cloud Gaming, AR, and VR

Cloud-based gaming, augmented reality, and virtual reality can be expected to witness substantial expansion in 2022 and in years to come. While the growth of cloud-based gaming will increase accessibility across multiple demographics, the implementation of cloud-based AR and VR can be more diverse in terms of industries. Some notable examples of cloud gaming are Google Stadia and Amazon Luna.

CONCLUSION

The rapid growth in the adoption of cloud computing has dramatically changed the way organizations work. Irrespective of the type of cloud an organization leverages, increased popularity leads to innovations for transforming the cloud computing landscape.

Trends surrounding cloud computing change as the technology advances and as business needs evolve. In 2022, some trends like containerization have found more stability, while many others like homogeneous architectures and serverless computing have surfaced prominently as per usage and benefits.

Apt knowledge of the latest trends can help organizations enhance their cloud implementations and enjoy the exceptional benefits that the technology can potentially offer. Organizations can leverage its multiple benefits while staying at pace with their industry and maintaining their competitive edge. Additionally, implementation of the latest yet relevant solutions can also be ensured, which can lead to better collaborations and seamless operations.