Cloud computing is an exciting area to watch or observe because of many contributing factors.  One is the number of businesses and individuals that are showing interest in the said platform.  Another is the fact that cloud computing technology is highly dynamic and ever-changing.  What may just be emerging now might become the next big thing in the coming weeks or months, or what may have been a promising breakout technology might quickly fizzle out before we all know it.

However, while such trends change fast, they are not entirely unpredictable. In fact, for 2017, experts can already tell what we can expect from cloud computing companies.

So, what are the cloud solutions to watch out for next year?  And what are the trends going to be?

1. More companies to migrate to the cloud.

David Linthicum, senior vice president at Cloud Technology Partners and author of more than a dozen books on computing, expects that more and more companies will be moving more and more workloads to the cloud.  This migration would mean a spike in cloud services adoption, but it will also usher in quite a number of problems that most companies may not have encountered before.  Even so, performance, management and security of cloud services will continue to be the main concern for cloud users.

The expected mass migration is not surprising.  In April 2016, CloudEndure reported that around 52 percent of companies have plans to get onto the cloud within the next two years.  That finding is based on a survey of IT professionals from all around the world.  Cloud endure also found that most companies are planning to use private and public clouds more and depend less on physical and virtual machines.

2. The continued growth of managed services.

The moving away from virtual machines and the increased potential problems of migrating to the cloud would create more demand for managed cloud services where companies can take advantage of the provider’s expertise in managing the networks, operating systems, storage, and other systems.  Managed cloud services would also have access to application stacks and tools that are otherwise not available to the end user.

tecRacer’s senior AWS consultant, Andreas Wittig, puts it simply in saying that he expects a more diversified portfolio of managed services as well as the shrinking of the share of virtualized cloud solutions.  Wittig expects that managed services would have something to offer for everyone, even those in niche markets.  Wittig is also the author of “Amazon Web Services in Action” and maintains the blog “cloudonaut.”

We have been seeing the growth of managed cloud services, with a Markets and Markets study predicting that the market will be worth $77 billion from 2016 through 2021.

3. The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Judging from the recently concluded AWS re:Invent 2016, it would seem that the retail and cloud computing giant is betting on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

During the event, Amazon announced general availability of three machine-learning services:

• Amazon Rekognition, which is practically an image recognition service that could detect common objects in a photo, and even detect faces.  It can even tell whether the person in the photo is happy, sad, angry, and whatever range of emotions with a corresponding level of confidence.

• Amazon Polly, which converts text to speech, allowing your applications to read out plain text in natural sounding voices.

• Amazon Lex, which helps you build chatbots and other conversational interfaces for your applications.  Amazon Lex uses the same engines used for Amazon Echo.

Amazon has also announced additional investments in other artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives.

This move is not unprecedented.  These technologies were previously used in other Amazon products, but now AWS users have access to them.  Also, as ComputerWorld’s Sharon Gaudin notes – IBM, Microsoft and Google are already offering artificial intelligence services.  The growing acceptance and interest in the technology would mean more businesses are going to use artificial intelligence in helping them stay competitive.

This could mean that artificial intelligence may be the next battleground in cloud computing.

4. Enterprise apps to be hosted on public cloud.

Forrester’s Dave Bartolettin says that enterprise apps are going to be hosted on public cloud. Early examples include Cardinal Health running Splunk and Dollar Shave Club running Spark on AWS. For 2017, more companies will be following suit as they turn their ideas into applications and software that they can use – and the cloud is the best place for that.

The shift to public cloud computing services is helped by other trends such as getting better at limiting cloud-related costs. Bartoletti says that cloud architects and cloud professionals are learning how to monitor consumption and starting to use cloud cost management tools such as Cloudyn and Cloudabilty.

Another trend that would make public clouds more attractive is the introduction of regional players. These are smaller cloud computing service providers that will fill up the gap left by big cloud companies. For instance, a company that needs to meet data localization regulations in Germany would work with a provider based in the same country. Meanwhile, other businesses are looking for smaller providers that could give them the same level of customizations they want for their cloud deployments.

Cloud computing is your best friend in 2017!

Cloud computing is undoubtedly your best friend if you want to stay competitive in 2017. If you are looking to migrate to the cloud, or if you are looking to have some applications and tools to host on cloud services, you do not have to start from scratch. Four Cornerstone can help you get your cloud deployments up and running in a fraction of the time that you would spend when you do it yourself. We have a team of experts that provide decades of expertise working with enterprises from different industries and that are ready to work on your cloud computing requirements.

Call Four Cornerstone now at (817) 377 1144 or fill out our short online contact form and tell us how we can help you move forward with your cloud computing endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Frank Monnerjahn.