In the ever-changing landscape of cloud computing, technological advances and shifts in priorities have facilitated rapid adoption and continued demand of cloud computing for firms. Most firms utilize one of the three hyperscalers, Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), Microsoft Azure (“Azure”), or Google Cloud computing platforms, which together represent ~66% of the cloud computing services market. By leveraging cloud computing platforms and their capabilities, firms can cut costs, store data securely, scale quickly, access data with ease, and design applications, among others. Given widespread adoption and increasing cloud utilization, these are five key trends that have emerged in 2024:

1. Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Revolution of Cloud Deployment

Generative AI continues to be a hot button topic. At least 70% of businesses use or plan to leverage AI in some shape or form, embracing this paradigm shift to reap efficiency, cost reductions, and enhanced performance. AI is poised to become the intelligent force optimizing every aspect of cloud operations. To push their platforms’ advancement, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have developed their own fully integrated AI models to assist users. The capabilities of AI through cloud computing platforms are extensive and cover a wide breadth of functions ranging from application development and data analysis to content production and operations optimization. Generative AI will continue to transform how companies design, deploy, and interact with distinct cloud services – enabling the cloud to become ‘smarter’ and more user-friendly. Moreover, firms that are creating their own internal or external generative AI tools train models via cloud computing as it demands extensive data and substantial computing resources.

2. Continued Adoption of Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Strategies

Cloud computing has three types of models – public, private and hybrid. Selecting a cloud computing model is a critical choice, as firms need to carefully consider benefits and drawbacks of each architecture type while keeping capabilities and cost in mind. Governmental entities and agencies primarily utilize on-prem or single cloud systems and are actively looking to transition fully to the cloud over the next decade. On the other hand, commercial businesses are rapidly adopting hybrid or multi-cloud strategies with a slew of benefits. In fact, ~90% of businesses currently have a multi-cloud computing structure. Utilizing hybrid and multi-cloud strategies incorporates public cloud services from multiple providers, enabling portability, flexibility, and risk mitigation via bypassing vendor lock-in. Moreover, these strategies provide enhanced control over IT infrastructure, strengthened disaster recovery capabilities, and bolstered security as sensitive data is stored across multiple cloud infrastructures. Organizations will continue to orchestrate sophisticated hybrid and multi-cloud strategies to harmonize their platforms and create a resilient cloud architecture that enables adaptability to new opportunities and challenges.

3. Low-Code / No-Code Cloud Solutions

Organizations are rapidly adopting low-code / no-code solutions through their cloud computing providers. These solutions enable users to quickly develop websites, applications, or other services. Additionally, unlike typical software creation, very little coding and technical knowledge is required, providing efficient development times for firms as well as error reduction. Lastly, the cost to produce such software utilizing cloud computing is significantly lower than traditional coding due to lower required costs of labor and maintenance.

4. Edge Computing

Utilization of edge computing is an emerging trend that industry players are continuing to adopt. Instead of leveraging a central cloud network, data and information are stored in localized data centers where computing, analysis, and management take place. While edge computing is particularly useful in remote locations with little connectivity, it also resolves latency issues affecting speed and performance of real time applications in addition to serving as the basis of the Internet of Things (“IoT”). Further, opportunities to leverage edge computing strategies continue to rise as data centers continue to be rapidly developed across the globe.

5. Enhanced Data Security

Security is always a top priority for our clients and other industry players when selecting a cloud computing provider as protecting invaluable proprietary data, internal and customer information and other sensitive data is crucial for any business. As such, providers are continuously improving security of their platforms to prevent data leaks, deletion, or any unauthorized amendments. Furthermore, platforms constantly bolster and enhance encryption algorithms and store multiple data backups for clients preventing loss or damage.