Emerging Technology Influencing Cloud Storage Trends This Summer 

Artificial Intelligence 

The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across industries is influencing the cloud storage trends this summer. Technologies like Machine Learning (ML) and Generative AI (GenAI) depend on the ability to access and manipulate large datasets in the cloud, requiring large capacity, storage flexibility and great throughput. Cloud Storage solutions are therefore evolving rapidly driven by the need for better performance, security and cost-efficiency. Cloud-native and the increasing use of serverless computing in event-driven applications and microservices are also shaping the storage technology landscape. Many Businesses are adopting a hybrid and multi-cloud setups are developing strategies that offer flexibility and improve resilience, while avoiding a vendor lock-in by the large public cloud providers. – Efrain Ruh, AIOps Expert and CTO at Digitate

AI/ML is a primary driver for moving data to the cloud from its initial location, which might initially reside on-premises or another cloud resource. After moving the data, the next step is to transform it into a format that can be consumed for a particular workload. Often, the initial transformation is followed by a second or third transformation to meet security or compliance requirements.

Transformation is a euphemism for using compute resources. Generally, compute is the most expensive resource in the cloud, but that must be calculations regarding the data life cycle. For instance, it may be cheaper to retransform data again, rather than pay storage fees. It is entirely situationally dependent.

Each transformation will require an appropriate data life cycle policy to be applied to it to minimize costs. A common requirement is that the data be moved from colder to warmer storage (and back again) based on the needs of the AI/ML workload so it can be used for future training activities or additional transformations. – David Christian, Global Migration Lead at DataArt

Cloud-first Policy Adoption

Leading into the summer season, ‘cloud-first’ has become a widely-adopted rule for companies that want to compete in the data-driven economy. With data only increasing in volume, the massive cost savings afforded by the cloud make it impossible for many organizations to opt for on-premises data centers. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. Still, today, cloud providers offer the security, flexibility, and often even the data residency requirements needed for any company’s unique circumstances.

In today’s collaborative data environment, where data is shared between departments, team members, and even satellite organizations, an on-premises solution can’t match the scalability and efficiency of the cloud. Disparate data was once a major stumbling block. Still, the ability for data platforms to do away with siloed and connected data from wherever it is has been addressed effectively by the cloud in a way that on-premises solutions can’t. – Sharad Varshney, CEO at OvalEdge

Software-defined Storage

One technology that’s not necessarily new but is becoming increasingly important is software-defined storage. Think of it this way: You’ve got lots of data in storage—a video archive, for example—that you don’t access often. There’s always an access pattern that emerges around this kind of data. But sometimes, those patterns change depending on what type of content people need at the moment. Traditionally, archivists notice that change and manually move some of the archival data into hotter storage so people can access it faster and cheaper. Software-defined storage builds frameworks to automate that process through scripting or AI to optimize for cost and performance.  – Majed Alhajry, technology, business process, and software development leader at MASV

Security Concerns Shaping Organization Approach to Cloud Storage 

Client Misconfigurations

A significant proportion of cloud security breaches are due to client misconfigurations, which are often driven by a lack of cloud expertise. That’s why some cloud providers have moved to the shared responsibility model. This model stakes out a middle ground between cloud providers dictating everything you can and cannot do, on one hand, and leaving customers to fend for themselves on the other. Shared responsibility means cloud providers implement sensible defaults—such as strong password enforcement or ensuring new storage buckets aren’t made public by default—while allowing customers the flexibility to configure their storage to suit specific use cases. – Majed Alhajry, technology, business process, and software development leader at MASV

Cloud Governance

Cloud governance is always an important element in any enterprise cloud implementation. Using cloud-native tools, Config or SecurityHub in AWS, Defender for Cloud in Azure, and Security Command Center in GCP allows you to see the security state of all storage repositories. It reports on questions like: Is the repository encrypted? Is the repository encrypted in a cost-efficient way? Does the repository have a life-cycle policy assigned to it? Does the repository restrict access from the Internet or internally? Are the policies that allow access to the repository the least privileged? Are permanent access keypairs disallowed or severely restricted?

Finding a repository that is out of compliance will mean scheduling it for a change to meet compliance needs. Creating new, out-of-compliance repositories is generally prohibited by policy. – David Christian, Global Migration Lead at DataArt

The Role Environmental and Sustainability Plays in Cloud Storage Trends 

Optimizing Resource Use

Environmental and sustainability considerations in cloud storage often focus on optimizing resource use. Cloud providers therefore allow users to select the best type of storage and deliver technological solutions that allow them to move data to more cost-effective platforms with ease, reducing not only their carbon footprint but also costs. – Efrain Ruh, CTO / Cloud Management Professional at Digitate

Centralization of Cloud Storage

There’s a lot of greenwashing in the cloud storage space, but there is merit to some of it. For example, the centralization of cloud storage is one of its most important sustainability features: If everyone in the cloud decided to build their own data centers, the amount of space and other resources required would far exceed what they’re using in the cloud. The capacity of the cloud is also higher due to economies of scale, which means you can store more gigabytes per cubic foot, which means less need for cooling, silicon, and other resources. Some public clouds have even started using underwater data centers, which use ocean water as a cooling method and require far less power. – Majed Alhajry, technology, business process, and software development leader at MASV

Efficient Allocation of Resources

According to reports, 60% of all corporate data is currently stored in a public cloud. Cloud providers have economies of scale within their data centers that simply cannot be matched by corporate data centers. In a data center, the tendency is to leave the compute resources, bare metal, and virtual machines on 7×24 in case they might be needed to process data. In the cloud, from a customer’s point of view, when the data needs to be processed in some way, the compute is enabled, the data is processed, and the compute is turned off. From the cloud provider point-of-view, what is actually happening is the compute is reallocated to other customers, but the overall carbon footprint is reduced globally due to a more efficient allocation of resources. – David Christian, Global Migration Lead at DataArt

The Influence of Remote Work and Hybrid Work on Cloud Storage Trends

Flexible and Scaleable Storage

The shift towards remote and hybrid work models has pushed for more flexible and scalable cloud storage solutions. As teams continue to work remotely, there is a higher reliance on collaborations tools like MS Teams, Slack, Google Workplace, etc, requiring a robust cloud storage solution. Remote work often introduces security vulnerabilities, making data protection a top-level concern. Having confidential organization data being accessed from multiple locations and devices increases the risk of an attack or a breach. Effective backup and recovery capabilities are also crucial to minimize risks on a hybrid work model. –  Efrain Ruh, CTO / Cloud Management Professional at Digitate

 Expanded Geographic of Workforce

Hybrid and remote work makes cloud storage a necessity, especially if you have a geographically spread-out workforce. That geographic spread can create significant expenses for on-prem organizations that need employees to access storage from anywhere with low latency. You also can’t provision on demand with on-prem storage—you have to provision for the worst-case scenario, just in case—so companies constantly overpay for capacity they don’t usually need. The economies of scale built into cloud storage suit hybrid work models because they allow organizations to scale up and down quickly without requiring significant CapEx. – Majed Alhajry, technology, business process, and software development leader at MASV

Recent Unexpected Uses for Cloud Storage

Storage as a Service

Several use cases for cloud storage have emerged beyond traditional data storage. One example is Storage as a Service (STaaS), a solution that organizations are starting to adopt to reduce complexity and increase efficiency through a consumption-based as-a-service model with increased levels of automation. – Efrain Ruh, CTO / Cloud Management Professional at Digitate

AI Payloads and Training Data

The cloud is very well suited for AI payloads and hosting AI training data use cases, which require rapid access to data and large amounts of sequential reads. Cloud storage is well-suited, efficient, and cheap for these use cases. It gets very expensive to have a training data corpus stored on prem—those drives must be spinning all the time to provide on-demand access, even though you’re not training your model at all times. With hot storage in the cloud, you get that access on demand, and access to that data is usually free, so you’re only paying for the storage element. This applies across most industries. – Majed Alhajry, technology, business process, and software development leader at MASV

Consolidating Compute Resources

We’ve been seeing organizations that initially took a multi-cloud approach, begin to reconsider and consolidate into a single cloud. Overcoming data gravity is real, egressing data between clouds or even regions within a cloud is more expensive than originally calculated. Putting all compute resources in local proximity to data repositories has been a trend recently because it is more efficient. –  David Christian, Global Migration Lead at DataArt

Cloud News

The post Cloud Storage Trends to Stay on Top Of   appeared first on Digital IT News.

To help you stay ahead of the curve, we have compiled 15 cloud predictions tech companies have for 2024.

1. Moving Away From On-Premise Server Rooms 

Cloud-based SaaS solutions will become an attractive option for businesses looking to move away from on-premise server rooms and improve carbon efficiency. When used within what the business needs (avoiding excessive usage and software sprawl) SaaS can be a quick win for your sustainability. – Frank Gartland, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Skillable

2. Increased Emphasis on Cloud Data Security and Privacy

The accelerated shift towards hybrid cloud integration solutions has been a significant development in 2023. The need for businesses to seamlessly connect applications, data, and processes across various environments (on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge) has grown considerably. Additionally, the emergence of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) has unlocked many new use cases and could drastically improve the customer experience. – Vince Padua, Chief Product Officer at Axway

3. Closing the DevOps and Security Team Disconnect

In the coming year, we also expect to see organizations work to close the disconnect between their DevOps and Security teams. By empowering these teams to work more cohesively, companies will have an easier time ensuring that applications and data are protected from security threats and vulnerabilities. Instead of looking within the “inside” of a cloud infrastructure, DevOps and security teams must work together in securing the border guarding each system. By doing so, organizations can maintain a robust in-house DevSecOps cybersecurity program that helps them react to incidents intelligently within minutes based on the uniqueness of each environment. – Or Shoshani, CEO & co-founder of Stream Security

4. Increased Adoption of Flexible Deployment Models

Every cloud provider has, more or less, experienced public difficulties with remediation efforts and patches taking a long time. I anticipate seeing organizations switch to a more flexible deployment model in the new year that allows for faster shifts between cloud providers due to security issues or unexpected changes in pricing. Microsoft’s recent “Secure Future Initiative” is just the start to rebuild public trust in the cloud. – Karl Fosaaen, VP of Research at NetSPI

Companies increasingly realize that data is one of their most valuable assets. Of course, not all data is created equally or effectively utilized, and some data classes are overlooked entirely. For example, many organizations are not taking full advantage of data regarding the health of their networks and applications, even though it can help predict performance problems and cybersecurity attacks. More and more organizations are looking for solutions that share and integrate data across platforms for more real-time insights to address this challenge. We can expect this trend to continue in 2024, especially as organizations grow their data lakes by incorporating new sources like packet and application performance management (APM) data. – Paul Barrett, Chief Technology Officer at NETSCOUT

As we head into 2024, the shift from batch to real-time data processing marks a major change in how businesses manage their financials and operations. This shift, now centralized on cloud platforms, like the Ververica Cloud, offers immediate data analysis, fostering agility and enabling swift response to customer needs, thereby enhancing overall business performance. It is superior to batch processing, which limits companies to periodic insights, and real-time data processing. This transformation is crucial in areas such as supply chain management and immediate response to data breaches, significantly reducing their financial impact. – Alexander Walden, CEO of Ververica 

5. AI Wars of 2023 Will Shift to Cloud Wars in 2024

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently the most talked about topic in the world. It has penetrated every industry and aspect of our lives, both at work and at home. AI-powered technologies have the potential to provide streamlined experiences, but they require a considerable amount of cloud computing power to generate content and deliver resources quickly, accurately, and effectively. 

We’ve seen plenty of upheaval in the AI space at the end of 2023, but now, I predict that the AI Wars of 2023 will shift to the Cloud Wars of 2024. Hyperscalers will continue investing in their proprietary large language models (LLMs) to retain customers in their ecosystem and increase their revenue. 

For instance, ChatGPT is probably the most well-recognized AI-powered LLM. These models require a lot of computing power and are the backbone of most generative AI applications. Cloud providers have emerged as the key distribution channels for these LLMs and are competing to ensure that the compute processing for these models comes through their servers. Hyperscalers are fighting to power these foundational models through their own servers to generate content and, thereby, boost their revenue. – Roger Brulotte, CEO, Leaseweb Canada  

6. Hybrid Cloud Will Mature

2024 will see the maturation of the hybrid cloud approach. It is not just regulated industries that are adopting it; organizations of all types are maintaining on-premises investments while also embracing the cloud. This flexible approach allows them to leverage the best of both worlds, as reinforced by findings in the recent 2023 Hybrid Cloud Survey. This survey reveals that two-thirds of respondents, 64%, have already implemented a hybrid approach, and 38% of all respondents intend to enhance their adoption of the hybrid cloud within the upcoming year. GenAI will accelerate cloud adoption and legacy workloads will need the ability to work with these new workloads in the cloud.   – Kamal Srinivasan, SVP of Product and Program Management at Parallels (a sub-brand of Alludo)

7. Ongoing Migration of Enterprise Data to the Cloud

As cloud computing continues to grow in 2024, we will see increased adoption by businesses of all sizes as cloud providers build more turnkey Saas solutions and pricing models, lowering barriers to entry and making it easier for businesses to manage their cloud resources. With this will come a greater focus on cloud security and compliance as well as new compliance standards. – Michael McLaren, President at Bounteous

8. More Complex Data Quality Issues

In this expanding cloud data era, data quality issues will also become more complex. The abundance and diversity of data increase the risks of data inconsistency, data duplication, and challenges in measuring data quality. Managing data lineage and addressing data latency across different access points around the globe are also a critical consideration, as is determining the appropriate tools for use with cloud data assets – Sharad Varshney, CEO of OvalEdge

9. Data Strategy Grounded in AI

AI’s transformative power is fueled by data, and this data is stored and processed in the cloud — a repository shaping the very essence of AI. Emerging as a key facilitator of AI by streamlining the management and analysis of data, the cloud is empowering organizations to implement AI solutions with heightened productivity and efficiency. In 2024, the predominant technology trend in won’t be AI itself, but the tech infrastructure powering AI — namely, the cloud. – Chris Heard, CEO at Olive Technologies

10. The New Data Center: Hybrid Multi-cloud Architecture

Multi-cloud adoption has accelerated in the past few years. In early 2023, a survey suggested that 98% of companies on the public cloud already have plans to switch to a multi-cloud infrastructure. At the same time, organizations have also been increasingly relying on hybrid cloud architecture for flexibility and cost-saving purposes in the hybrid work era.

In the coming year, we will see an influx of companies opting for hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. The difference with the previous years is evident, as they will aim to seamlessly combine these two approaches. Companies will be enjoying the best of both worlds: the flexibility and scalability of multi-cloud architecture coupled with sovereignty and control over their data and applications offered by the hybrid cloud – in-country, across regions, or around the world. – Amitabh Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder at Workspot

11. Edge Computing Growth 

Edge computing will see up to a 50 percent growth rate, creating a significant impact on things like improving performance, reducing latency, and better automation – Amruth Laxman, Founding Partner at 4Voice

Edge computing is rapidly becoming one of the most talked about data processing strategies. In 2022, around 54% of businesses were interested in edge computing but needed to see more examples of what it could bring to the table. By 2024, we’re now well-experienced in utilizing edge computing to optimize data-related processes.

As a decentralized and very low latency approach, edge computing provides an effective way of processing data more efficiently. This will go hand in hand with other developments, like the drive toward more agile approaches to data. As companies continue to invest in data, edge computing will become a primary choice for those looking to streamline processes, minimize costs, and maximize efficiency. – Charles Chow, Head of Marketing at Lumen

12. Cost Will Become the Ultimate Performance Metric

After decades of profligate spending on hardware, software, and services, 2024 will become the year that the cost to run an application becomes the ultimate performance metric. The traditional metrics that are focused on commodities (CPU, memory, disk, network) will actually become less important. As digitally transformed organizations continue their advance to the cloud, the cost-of-goods-sold will get linked intrinsically with operational and services measured at a finer-grained level; looking at specific tools, services, and algorithms for cost savings. – Kyle Campos, Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) of CloudBolt 

Cost optimization, sustainability and flexibility in a lean economic environment will continue to put hybrid cloud strategies front and center. Given the speed at which certain technologies like AI and IoT are multiplying, hybrid cloud will help CIOs rationalize certain investments and optimize the storage component (a key part to any green computing initiative).

In older models, storage was one of the most expensive components of a system, so we were very selective in what data was stored and how. Today, the opposite is true, in that storage is often the least expensive component of a system, which has led many organizations to adopt a “store everything forever” mentality. This is why we see focus on hybrid cloud and edge intensifying in 2024.

To prepare, CIOs should:

• Conduct thorough assessments of workloads to determine which are best for on-premise, public or private clouds.
• Set policies that automatically manage the lifecycle of data.
• Identify and optimize areas of code that consume the most time and resources.

–Mike Nolan, Principal Architect at SPR

13. Clouds Will Increasingly Evolve from Horizontal to Vertical

In 2024 we will see vertical clouds continue to grow, a concept where cloud infrastructures specialize in specific industries or functions. Currently, cloud services like AWS, Google, and Azure mainly operate as general-purpose platforms, while SaaS applications such as Marketo and MuleSoft cater to specific business needs. The transition from horizontal to vertical clouds is anticipated, where dedicated clouds for finance or agriculture, for instance, will offer highly specialized services. While we have seen industries starting to buy into vertical clouds, the evolution will be somewhat gradual; they won’t reach their prime in 2024, but they will enjoy significant growth when it comes to adoption. Google Cloud, for example, has developed cloud offerings that cater specifically to the healthcare and manufacturing industries, and I expect this trend will continue across cloud providers and additional industries. – Manoj Chaudhary, Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of Engineering at Jitterbit.

14. Multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud Adoption Will Lead to Distributed Architectures

Enterprises are now diving headfirst into the realm of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies by strategically weaving together the finest offerings from different cloud providers tailored to their business needs.

This trend is set to continue well into 2024, as organizations embark on a quest to fine-tune their cloud expenditures, elevate the effectiveness and dependability of their applications. As the approach matures, it’s not just about optimizing costs — it’s a journey toward technical and operational agility to unlock the full potential of distributed architectures.

Embracing distributed compute is merely the prelude; the key to success depends on the widespread adoption of distributed databases, which should provide the foundation for developers to create innovative architectural models. The cloud revolution is not just about adoption, but a combination of optimization and architectural evolution. – Jay Jenkins, CTO of Cloud Computing at Akamai

15. Major Cloud Providers Will Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

“Sustainability and environmental concerns are influencing the major cloud providers like Microsoft, Amazon and Google to undertake many initiatives to reduce the overall carbon (CO2) footprint of cloud data centers. They have pledged to transition their cloud data centers to carbon-neutral via carbon offsetting and investment in renewable energy infrastructures like wind, solar, hydropower and hosting data centers in under-water containers. In addition, cloud providers are deploying modern high-performance computing, networking and storage hardware to reduce overall electricity usage. Many other companies are following similar approaches to reduce the overall electricity needs and the associated carbon emissions. – Mahadeva Bisappa, Principal Architect at SPR

Cloud Tech News

The post 15 Cloud Predictions for 2024 appeared first on Digital IT News.