Everything from contact tracing to remote working and off-site healthcare solutions, cloud services are revolutionising the way we work, live and communicate. On that note, here are 3 of the biggest trends to look out for when it comes to cloud adoption in the year to come.‍

Multi-Cloud and Joint Cloud Solutions

‍Current cloud provider giants (such as Amazon and Google) have long been a one-stop solution for businesses securing all of an organization's cloud, data, and compute requirements. However, Forbes noted that “the industry is increasingly turning to hybrid or multi-cloud environments with requirements for infrastructure to be deployed across multiple models.” This is because multi-cloud services will address concentration risk and single-provider reliance. In fact, Gartner highlighted that in-house skills will signify enterprise agility, the ability to distribute cloud services wherever customers want to consume them.

‍Edge Computing

‍One of the biggest cloud weaknesses could probably be that most giant cloud providers are centralised entities (as explained above) - great for those who are near a cloud’s data center, but not for those in remote locations. For example, those who need to process huge volumes of data are completely reliant on their network bandwidth. Coupled with distant locations, this is where edge computing comes to the rescue.Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm which brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, thus improving response times and saving bandwidth. In the words of E-Commerce Times: “Many companies must keep sensitive business data onshore, often for regulatory reasons. Edge computing ensures that data is localised and compliant, while still allowing businesses to take advantage of cloud technology.”

‍Containerization

‍Still on the topic about agility, banks are forced to focus on delivering innovative products, services, and customer experiences more than ever now. To meet this need and scale, containerization offers a tool in which applications can be decoupled from the surroundings in which they run. It involves bundling an application together with all of its related configuration files, libraries and dependencies required for it to run in an efficient and bug-free way across different computing environments. When delivered successfully, this helps banks to develop, run, and manage cloud applications in multiple environments, delivering agility and reliability in an on-premise environment.

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