Back at the start of this decade, predictions regarding the wonderful ways that lay forward for cloud computing dominated headlines. Analysts were heralding the arrival of cloud computing as the smartest thing to happen to technology since the invention of the diode. Every Tom, Dick and Harry had their own opinions regarding how the market would be in the future.
In the years since, cloud computing has actually become a force to be reckoned with. For several enterprises, the cloud is currently the default for deploying new applications and services. But did the analysts’ original predictions regarding cloud computing come to be true?
Let’s look at some cloud predictions that analysts forecast half a decade ago. A number of them came to fruition and others were misplaced.
Non-IT corporations Becoming Cloud Services Providers
A few years in the past, a variety of experts were predicting that non-tech corporations would begin to supply cloud computing services and would possibly even become major players within the market. Analysts theorized that alternative cloud service through resource retailers would lead to cheap cloud computing. Clearly, this is one space where they missed the mark.
Any company is happy to sell a large range of “cloud-ready” devices. In fact, because of this, Amazon and other technology corporations dominate the cloud market. A reported analysis found out that Amazon Web Services (AWS) had the major share in the public and private hosted cloud market, whereas Microsoft, IBM, Google and Alibaba trailed by a bit, and were catching up fast.
Going Private on the Cloud Would Be a Lot Simpler
In this time of cloud adoption, several analysts believe that enterprises would embrace the non-public system of cloud hosting and resource partitioning. Due to security threats, entrepreneurs would be much more suspicious of trusting sensitive data to the public cloud. The common organization’s IT resources are better off being supported by private firewalls and focused, dedicated cloud implementation.
Organizations have invested heavily in privately owned clouds, however, in recent times, non-public cloud investment has slowed whereas public cloud investment is rising higher by the day. Privately operated clouds, however, need upgrades at regular intervals. Enterprises with no in-house cloud IT teams need cloud support outsourced to experts. Industry data showed that thirty two of every hundred workloads were within the public cloud and forty two were within the non-public cloud, the rest going hybrid.
Rising Cloud Computing Payments
This estimate about digital payments moving to the cloud was off. Not as a result of analysts overestimating cloud computing’s growth, though – it was as a result of them underestimating it. No matter whose data you crunch, the expansion of public cloud revenues has clearly exceeded expectations.
The hype about cloud computing could also be due to the fact that using the cloud was in style for a time, however, the public cloud became a lot more vital for the long haul than short term gains. Ultimately, the general public vs. non-public discussion could become moot as a lot of organizations move toward hybrid clouds and multi-cloud environments.
PCs Lose Market Share to Cloud Devices
Another common belief back in the early days of cloud computing was that the new computing model would cause individuals to cease investing in PCs. This prediction might have turned out to be partly true, but not just because of cloud devices. Mobile internet is the bigger factor.
Moore’s Law made devise smaller before they became larger again, and cloud storage played an important part therein. Apple’s iCloud and Google Cloud are bundled with every iOS and Android device.
So, sales of PCs have declined. The laptop trade is victim to a five year slump, and this is reportedly the eleventh straight quarter of declining shipments. Shipments are hitting all-time lows and plunging. Still, those cargo numbers were foretold way back in 2011. Therefore, cloud computing could have contributed to declining laptop sales, but individuals and companies haven’t really stopped shopping for PCs because of cloud alone.
Tablets and Mobile Devices Rule the Roost
Today, every person is accessing their information and generating more via mobile devices. But tablet sales, particularly for the iPad, which leads in numbers, is declining in recent years. IDC’s report from the second quarter of 2017 found that shipments were in a “downward spiral.” Best avoided, those!
As mobiles became more cost-effective, the value advantage for tablets is fairly slim. And rather than ancient PCs, some enterprises, particularly those who use Google’s cloud services, are not regretting getting Chromebooks for workers.
So whereas sales of PCs declined as cloud computing became the norm, sales of tablets and mobile smartphones have multiplied to the extent that was unforeseen. Abundant money that may have been spent on PCs is now going to smartphones, even more significantly as phone screen sizes have expanded.
Open Source Platforms to Spread the Cloud
Analysts anticipated that corporations would communicate over open cloud solutions so as to safeguard themselves against lock-ins and predatory pricing. OpenStack is a frontrunner in this regard, being a crucial open source cloud initiative.
Overall, the advent of cheap cloud computing has proved its critics wrong. Once an organization already has a good slice of the market, scaling up its IT resources and securing data is best done on the cloud.
Aradhye Ackshatt
