What is the Future of Cloud Computing?

The cloud is now so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to remember life without it. In fact, as it continues to dominate the IT landscape, it makes you wonder when cloud computing might just be called ‘computing’. In 2018, nearly half of all IT spending will be cloud-based, while by 2020, up to 70 percent of all services, software and technology will be in the cloud.

Clearly then, there’s tremendous growth to come, so we’ve canvassed industry experts to find out what the future of cloud computing will bring in terms of security, infrastructure and importantly, jobs.

 

Security

The security of the cloud has been one of the polarising issues for IT professionals in recent years. With email accounts, business files, workloads, sensitive data and much more stored on the cloud, concerns about security are inevitable.

Potential concerns that are often cited include:

• Poor configuration of the cloud that can lead to the circumvention of internal policies that protect sensitive data
• Weak authentication, encryption and audit logging of some cloud services
• Failure to maintain and patch cloud services to ensure flaws are not exploited

Despite the security concerns, Gartner predicts that by 2020, 60 percent of enterprises that implement appropriate cloud visibility and control will experience one-third fewer security failures. That’s because the security at major cloud providers is generally better than most enterprise data centres. In fact, the biggest risk is not the security of the cloud itself, but the policies and technologies for security that enterprises put in place.

Gartner also forecasts that by 2020, 95 percent of all cloud security failures will be a consequence of the actions of the consumer. For that reason, the focus in the future must be on implementing a tactical approach to the use of cloud computing and applying as much automation to the process as possible to eliminate the risk of human error.

– Find Cloud Security Contractors HERE

 

Three future cloud security measures include:

• Passwords being replaced – Passwords are giving way to biometrics as part of a multi-factor authentication process.
• AI and machine learning – Cloud environments are being fortified with machine learning engines to analyse global data points and identify attack indicators.
• More automation – Machine learning tools will drive significant process improvements in developing and deploying automated defences to take the pressure off security administrators.

 

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:  WHY EMBRACING DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY = INCREASED £

 

 

Infrastructure

Rather than investing in expensive hardware and managing their own data centres directly, companies are instead relying on public cloud providers like Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft Azure to provide their computing, storage and networking resources in a flexible way. But for some enterprises, that’s not enough.

Many are now choosing to use multi-cloud architecture to distribute workloads across a number of cloud environments to mitigate the risks associated with the use of a single environment, such as latency and security.

In the future, ‘serverless’ computing, known as ‘function-as-a-service (FaaS)’, is muted to become the next stage in the cloud journey. The fact that tasks are performed by a serverless platform has the potential to remove instances of idleness. Nick Rockwell, CTO at the New York Times, said:

“Given a healthy, competitive dynamic, serverless can yield 5 to 10 times more efficiency gains and a lot of those savings will come back to the users. In the long-term, economically, it’s going to be a far better, cheaper and more efficient way to go”.

The cloud will also provide the digital infrastructure of tomorrow’s cities, with driverless cars, drone taxis, smart elevators, parking lots and even farms and power plants made safer and more efficient thanks to the cloud’s ability to analyse and store data. According to Chip Childers, CTO of Cloud Foundry Foundation:

“This is all part of a shift to a cloud-first world more and more. Even with private data centres, the use of cloud technologies is changing how we think about infrastructure, application platforms and system development”.

– Find Cloud Infrastructure contractors HERE

 

 

Jobs

Cloud computing will have a significant impact on IT jobs over the next 5-10 years, but rather than eliminating positions, many will simply migrate. A fall in the in-house demands of IT organisations will be balanced by the creation of positions that assist with the remote maintenance of cloud networks and a surge in security roles.

IT jobs that are likely to change include:

• Systems and database administrators – The demand for in-house systems and database administrators will fall but they will still be highly sought-after by cloud providers.
• Helpdesk support – Administrative and helpdesk positions will not be removed entirely but it’s likely they will taper off internally as companies relocate to the cloud.

With IT jobs moving from organisations to cloud service providers, there will be a number of new skills sets that need to be filled. Security for shared networks is one of the hottest fields for IT recruiters right now, with ‘security engineer’ and ‘security architect’ set to be two of the most in-demand roles. There will also be an increased need for IT project managers within cloud service providers.

Looking for your next IT role?

At LynxPro, we connect the most sought-after IT talent and the leading companies to fill a diverse range of IT roles. Get in touch today for immediate advice and support.