The nonstop rise of the cloud has been incredibly impressive thus far, but things are only just getting started for this nascent technology that’s already upended everything we know about business and personal storage. As the new year rapidly approaches, analysts and investors across the marketplace are erupting into speculation about which trends will continue to disrupt the cloud market as we know it today.
Here are five cloud trends that will dominate 2019, and how this technology will continue to evolve as the rest of the 21st century gets underway.
1. The cloud skill gap will narrow
There’s currently a huge dearth of cloud expertise in the market, largely because so many companies need IT-savvy cloud experts, but the labor market is only so deep when it comes to competent talent. This has resulted in the so-called cloud skill gap, which has frustrated economic growth for years and continues to be a thorn in the side of businesses of all shapes and sizes. Luckily, 2019 will deliver some good news on this front, as the cloud skill gap is expected to narrow as more eager professionals plunge head-first into a burgeoning industry.
Gartner projects that the cloud computing industry will be raking in some $221.1 billion next year, for instance, and some argue that most estimates are being too conservative when it comes to predicting the true power of the cloud to disrupt our economy.
2. The cloud computing market will become more diverse
As the amount of money that stands to be made in the cloud computing market grows, so too will the number of businesses hoping to make it big by becoming leaders in this industry. It’s only natural that the cloud computing market will become more diverse in 2019, especially since new competitors are entering the market on a near-daily basis given the immense potential of this technology.
Cloud computing platforms are rapidly diversifying, especially since major tech companies which have enjoyed a monopoly in the industry for so long are beginning to lose their grip on the reins of power. As such things as network security grow more important, diverse cloud platforms that are more resilient to outside attacks will continue to lure in heaps of investment capital.
3. The cloud is getting more private
Despite the rise of public cloud services over the past few years, it’s indisputable that the cloud is getting more private. At the very least, more and more companies are funneling cash towards private cloud endeavors which they believe will capture a growing niche in the cloud marketplace. There’s plenty of data to believe that private cloud spending will continue to enjoy double-digit growth every year for the foreseeable future, which shouldn’t be surprising given its impressive potential to re-imagine the internet as we know it.
4. Automation will keep entrenching itself in the marketplace
Despite the hubbub being raised about the job-stealing nature of automation, you should expect automation services to keep rising in popularity as 2019 unfolds. Automation platforms are more efficient today than ever before, which means that businesses of all shapes and sizes have a sizable economic incentive to digitize their operations to the greatest extent possible. While human capital will always be vital in the cloud marketplace, it’s growing quite obvious that the future of the cloud will at least partly be determined by clever algorithms that do some of our thinking for us.
Major corporations like Amazon and Microsoft are already beginning to cash in on this trend with the use of lawyer SEO; Amazon Web Services has a wide variety cloud automation services, for instance, including automatic testing to locate weak security points. As digital privacy and network security grow more important to the public, especially as new data breaches continue to occur, automation will be viewed as a way of securing the cloud and making it a more reliable place to store our sensitive information.
5. 2019 will be the year of disaster recovery
If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that disasters in the business world will always happen sooner rather than later. Instead of wasting their time and money trying to avoid calamities which are essentially inevitable, more companies and IT professionals are beginning to dedicate resources towards disaster recovery initiatives instead, which help mitigate network failure and bolster trust in cloud services in general.
The data backup and recovery market’s impressive growth forecasts are the easiest way to detect this trend before 2019 begins. As consumers and major corporations alike grow more concerned about how their sensitive information is being handled and securely stored, they’ll demand that cloud platforms have data recovery options in the event of a true crisis. The data backup and recovery market are set to swell to nearly $12 billion by 2022, according to some reports, so expect this forthcoming year to be dominated by cloud services which extensive backup options.
