For a few years now, the cloud computing as one of the fastest growing industries in the IT scene. Even in difficult economic times, when other sectors of the economy are struggling, the stocks of the leading companies are proving to be stable and sustainable. This is due to the high expectations placed on the industry and the continued rise in importance of the business sector. While cloud computing was still a foreign word for many IT decision-makers in Germany five years ago, many companies have now upgraded or intend to set up their own cloud for the company in the near future. This shows that the industry is facing serious changes and that some hopes have not been fulfilled. This raises the question of what the future of cloud computing will look like.
Shrinking diversity and missed opportunities
When the first companies started to build cloud computing into the new technology of the future about ten years ago, there was a real gold-rush atmosphere in the industry. The competition between providers for the latest ideas and best specialists was sometimes fierce. In retrospect, however, many hopes were not fulfilled and many opportunities were missed. Many of the smaller providers are now on the retreat again, while the large IT groups are dividing up the market among themselves. Looking to the future is particularly difficult in such a dynamic and vibrant market, but this trend will continue. Startups will at best be able to conquer smaller niches in this difficult market environment. Unlike the large IT corporations, they cannot raise billions to research new key technologies and poach the best professionals. Nevertheless, they can build strong core competencies in said niches that offer solution-oriented approaches to specific tasks and services. One of the biggest concerns is still the fear of a serious security breach that could compromise important information. Data are lost or stolen by third parties. It is already foreseeable today that although these concerns will not disappear completely from the world, they are no longer as important as they were a few years ago. This is due on the one hand to the fact that providers have long since tightened up security measures in data centres and on the other hand to the fact that dubiously operating companies have often gone bankrupt. Every security gap is therefore a threat to the existence of the individual provider and is therefore not taken lightly.
Importance of hybrid clouds will continue to grow
Not only the importance of the smaller providers will continue to shrink. The number of private clouds will also slowly decline. Several surveys from last year clearly show this. Instead, many companies are increasingly switching to the Hybrid Cloud. Hybrid clouds combine services from the public cloud with those from the private cloud. In this way, companies increase their efficiency and can scale much more easily if more resources are needed. They can decide more freely whether they want to entrust essential areas to the public cloud or whether they prefer to continue managing them in a private cloud. Smaller companies particularly benefit from using it, as they can save on staff costs and the maintenance costs of technical infrastructure. When it comes to data security, a bigger role in using a public cloud will tend to be where the service provider is located. This is a direct result of the NSA spying affair. With the growth of cloud computing, it is already foreseeable today that the demand for higher bandwidths will increase. This is the only way users will be able to retrieve data quickly. Since then, unconventional solutions such as drones and balloons have been discussed, which, with the right technical equipment, are supposed to provide higher bandwidth in hard-to-reach or locally limited conurbations.
Continued strong growth
Experts assume that the growth in cloud computing will continue to be strong. This will also be ensured by the Internet of Things, which links numerous devices together. Analysts currently assume that the wearables market in particular will grow strongly by 2025. Together with hybrid clouds, Big Data analyses and other service areas, this will continue to ensure stable growth rates.
