3 Top Cloud Computing Trends Your Business Needs to Get Ready For in 2024
2024-02-19 08:42:09The cloud services market continues to grow, and according to industry predictions, 2024 will be no different.
Gartner, the renowned research and advisory consultancy, estimates that global spending on public cloud services will go up from $563.6 billion in 2023 to $678.8 billion in 2024. This increase of over 20% is difficult to gloss over, especially in an otherwise grim economic landscape, mass layoffs in tech, and rampant inflation.
The ongoing growth of cloud services follows closely wider trends shaping our modern world. As technological developments like Generative AI continue to amaze and alarm us, cloud adoption becomes even more complex and strategically targeted.
The three top cloud computing trends in 2024
With high technology creeping into the everyday lives of ordinary people in new and unexpected ways, the three core trends impacting the cloud this year will include:
Increased adoption of hybrid cloud.
Even faster development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Growing focus on sustainability.
Let’s focus on what these cloud computing trends mean for your business and how to embrace them in 2024.
Cloud computing trend #1: Increased adoption of hybrid cloud
Hybrid cloud solutions combine public cloud services and a private cloud or on-prem infrastructure. This approach allows companies to get the best of both worlds: the flexibility and scalability of the public cloud and the security of private setups.
By diversifying environments, your company can benefit from the public cloud’s specialised services and cost-efficiency for workloads that don’t require high-security levels.
Hybrid cloud setups are pivotal for DevOps, as they enable operating CI/CD for faster deployment and testing of new applications in scalable public cloud environments. Once the app is ready for production, you can seamlessly transition it to a private cloud for more control. This ability helps to reduce your TTM and better respond to evolving business needs.
Soaring economic uncertainties and the need to drive costs down while improving cloud security will fuel hybrid cloud computing’s growth in 2024. The ongoing development of cloud technologies makes combining public and private setups easier than ever, helping to respond to the growing need for more flexibility and scalability.
Cloud computing trend #2: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Even though public opinion conflates AI and ML with blockbusters like ChatGPT, these complex technologies have long been present in cloud computing, albeit in less spectacular forms. Their development also heavily depends on the cloud’s computing power.
Enabling companies to automate processes, spot new efficiencies, and make more informed decisions, Artificial Intelligence has made its mark across many industries. For example, insurance companies notoriously rely on AI/ML to analyse customer data and estimate risks, while e-commerce uses it for personalised product recommendations.
Working with Tenesys clients, we’ve also observed a growing interest in the possibilities these technologies grant to businesses – and these are endless.
One of our projects for MieterEngel uses algorithms to automate the analysis of rental agreements and contact the lawyers in case of irregularities.
Another recent project we delivered is an intelligent warehouse solution for PSI AG, an energy and production management client. The platform uses ML to solve the traveling salesperson problem (TSP), i.e., how to find the shortest path while visiting all necessary destinations and simulate logistics processes.
By gathering and analysing data in real-time, the platform lists all products needed for an order, determining the shortest route and proposes optimal use of resources, such as equipment, lorries, and warehouse staff.
Cloud computing trend #3: Sustainability
2024 is also the moment when businesses are increasingly paying attention to cloud sustainability.
Conscious cloud computing decisions can help them reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. For example, a trading company can use ML-driven tools to find optimal hours to run analytics processing for minimal energy consumption.
Yet just as AI finds new efficiencies, it also requires far more energy and computing power for model training and inference, again bringing sustainability into the limelight. The growing public concern for environmental impact and related regulations clearly position sustainability as one of the key cloud computing trends in 2024.
Not all cloud service providers can promise climate neutrality by 2030 like Google and Microsoft did. However, most CSPs are now trying to meet their customers’ demand for greener cloud computing with tools for calculating and mitigating the infrastructure’s carbon footprint.
Other cloud computing trends to look out for in 2024
Apart from these three major cloud computing trends, you can expect a few other cloud technologies to grow in 2024.
Firstly, edge computing, that is, the processing of data and applications close to users. Enabling better performance and faster response times, edge computing is crucial in online gaming, video and audio streaming services, and IoT.
Secondly, blockchain is a distributed ledger that records transactions securely. Primarily used for financial operations such as payments and property transfers, blockchain relies on cloud computing for the scalability and accessibility of decentralised data.
Finally, multi-cloud refers to the use of services of multiple cloud providers simultaneously, leading to improved flexibility, resilience, and reliability. Both multi-cloud and hybrid cloud help to ensure that even if one of your environments goes down, the other parts can ensure your operational continuity.
Research proves that multi-cloud is becoming a new norm, as 98% of enterprises surveyed by Oracle in 2023 confirmed using or planning to use at least two clouds.
What these cloud computing trends mean for your business
The cloud services market is not stagnant despite the economic slowdown, inflation, and massive layoffs. Cloud computing’s flexibility and scalability make this technology even more attractive to businesses.
While hybrid and multi-cloud setups can offer more flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, by introducing ML/AI, you can uncover new optimisation ideas and power process automation.
Accounting for sustainability in your cloud strategy in 2024 will undoubtedly pay off tomorrow as environmental concerns continue to pick up.
Don’t leave it to chance. Get a professional cloud strategy consultation, and ensure your business setup is ready for future challenges.
About the author:
Krzysztof Dąbrowski – Krzysztof is a Cloud Architect at Tenesys, known for his strategic insight into cloud computing projects. He guides infrastructure development and future planning, ensuring Tenesys remains at the forefront of technological innovation.