Cloud computing continues its rapid growth as more businesses look to migrate part or fully from legacy systems to cloud-based solutions.
That growth is expected to continue at a 27.3 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), with revenues for the entire industry estimated to reach $629 billion according to a new report from ResearchAndMarkets. Around $72.7 billion of that will come from infrastructure-as-a-service storage and related computing services.
There are many reasons why businesses are switching to cloud, which include lower spending on IT infrastructure, access to leading-edge technologies, service and delivery efficiencies, and more organizational flexibility to change priorities or enter into new markets.
“Cloud technologies and solutions are becoming increasingly more important to communication service providers, enterprise, content, and commerce providers,” said Laura Wood, senior press manager at ResearchAndMarkets.com, in a released statement. “This is particularly the case as many IT departments predominantly implement virtualization of network functions and softwaritization of applications and operational support systems through the use of software-defined network solutions.”
See also: Cloud Migration: Enabling Innovation
As cloud computing becomes more commonplace, IT departments are expected to find more distinctive ways to tap into the power of cloud, and in some industries utilize edge computing for even more enhancements of service and delivery. At the same time, implementation of analytics and artificial intelligence solutions on top of the cloud service will enable businesses to do more with the data they are collecting, which should lead to better customer service and improved market position for those that use these solutions.
“Arguably, a corporation’s most critical asset is its data. As a result, optimizing data management assets, processes, and procedures is of particular importance,” said Wood. “This includes those data elements shared between the numerous applications, systems, and services within the enterprise across all industry verticals. Only through reliable data management services can organizations truly realize the true potential of their own data and data from customers, suppliers, partners, and various third parties.”
The development of edge computing as the next level for some industries will re-integrate mobile networks into IT service environments, which have by-and-large been left out of the cloud discussion. LTE and 5G providers such as Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, and MEC are building packages and services for Internet of Things (IoT) and other edge case deployments, in a move to commercialize the market before cloud giants – AWS, Azure, and GCP – establish themselves.
