EDITOR’S QUESTION
Multi-cloud and AI environments
will soon be the norm
Software vendors are now moving into cloud-scale databases and cloud native offerings
managed by artificial intelligence, answers Veeam’s Gregg Petersen.
W
ith the rapid
adoption of
cloud, what
are the upsides and
downsides for enterprises
in the near future?
Gregg Petersen, Regional Sales Vice President,
MEA, Veeam Software.
C
loud computing was really born
just over ten years ago, after a
few stumbles and early course
corrections, the pace of innovation is now
accelerating dramatically. Enterprises’
increasing reliance on the cloud to
deliver the simplicity and efficiency their
customers and partners demand now
means that data protection and availability
are pivotal concerns. Any firm can have
the best, AI-based customer intelligence
platform in the world, but if it is not
available for days, the value is lost.
But as the cloud computing landscape
continues to rapidly evolve, no-one really
knows for sure what the future holds.
However, there are four key themes for the
cloud in the future.
1. Multi-cloud environments
will become the norm as no single cloud
platform is perfect for every workload. The
tools and platforms for managing across
them will continue to mature and drive
seamless integration across clouds. It’s no
longer a question of if an organisation will
move some or all of its assets to the cloud,
but when and how. There is a plethora
of ways in which companies can leverage
50
Artificial
Intelligence
enabled through
cloud platforms
will begin
permeating across
enterprises,
industries and
applications.
cloud platforms and it’s now become a
matter of which ones should I leverage?
Solving, the move to the cloud
increasingly requires a multi-cloud
approach and a corresponding portfolio
of management and operational tools.
Software providers understand this and
will continue to improve their offerings
to make seamless integration across the
cloud landscape a reality.
2. Cloud-native applications
will surge as enterprises of all sizes and
independent software vendors hone their
ability to define and deliver applications and
solutions that are conceived and architected
to take advantage of cloud platforms.
The cost, scale and efficiency benefits
of cloud native applications are now
too compelling to ignore, and with swift
advances in essential technologies like
micro services and supporting development
tools, cloud native applications will
accelerate into the mainstream.
3. Cloud scale database services e.g.
Azure Cosmos, Google Cloud Spanner and
services from AWS, will enable hyper-scale,
highly distributed and mission-critical
applications to become reality. They will also
further increase the appetite for infusing
data and analytics into every application
delivered in the cloud. Compelling
characteristics such as low-latency, scale out
and geo-distribution will provide the type of
horsepower IoT and numerous other global-
scale applications require.
4. Artificial Intelligence enabled
through cloud platforms will begin
permeating across enterprises, industries
and applications. While we are not quite
at the level of HAL from 2001: A Space
Odyssey, technologies like Alexa, Cortana
and Siri are demonstrating the power and
potential impact of AI in everyday life. For
businesses, the capabilities of machine
learning, powered by Petabytes of data
and insanely fast compute resources will
impact consumer experiences, biotech
research, financial modeling and myriad
other applications.
So, what does this all mean for us in
the next 12 months? Customers and users
the world over will not care what your
problems are; they expect the information
and ability to transact to be there when
they want it, and it’s frighteningly easy to
move from you to your competitor if you
do not offer it.
Issue 14
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS