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Navisite 2017 Predictions: 4 Cloud Predictions for the New Year

VMblog Predictions 2017

Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2017.  Read them in this 9th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by David Grimes, Vice President of Product Engineering, Navisite

4 Cloud Predictions for 2017

As we look back at the changes that have taken shape over the past year in the cloud market, it's incredible to see the speed at which the industry continues to evolve. With the increasing push to digitization, cloud adoption is accelerating across enterprises, both unlocking efficiency and fueling new business models.

Let's take a look at a few trends to watch for in 2017 that will help set the stage for the next phase of cloud:

1.       Multi-cloud will continue to dominate -- 2016 certainly made the case for multi-cloud deployments and we'll continue to see this shift gain momentum in the year ahead. As deployments to the cloud have increased, so has the complexity and sophistication with  which organizations are using it. Cookie-cutter clouds are a thing of the past - organizations now want to architect the best environments to manage their specific applications, and as such, it's becoming increasingly important to match application and workload with the correct compute, networking, and storage.

2.       Cloud talent shortage remains a sore spot:  The talent crunch for modern IT skills has made it increasingly difficult for businesses to find qualified workers with cloud skills. There simply is not enough talent available to midsize enterprises to enable them to confidently move to the cloud on their own and ensure it's secure and governed properly. While attempts are being made to close the talent gap through professional education and certification programs, it will be sometime before skills set catches up to demand.

3.       AI and machine learning will power the next generation of cloud security: Although the cloud is being more widely adopted, cloud security remains a top concern among enterprise IT professionals, especially as cyber villains become more aggressive and their tactics more sophisticated.  To combat this, innovators are working to move from the old school anti-virus approach to a more transformative approach informed by artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify any abnormalities in the network. Cloud security continues to move from reactive to proactive to predictive and today's networks and cloud security vendors are racing to make 2017 a story of these key technologies to join forces and make cloud deployments safer than any other deployment model.

4.       The rise of infrastructure aware applications: As an alternative to an application aware infrastructure model, an infrastructure-aware approach allows developers to build an application in such a way that the app is actually aware of the infrastructure that it's running on and recognizes that the infrastructure is virtualized and has accessible APIs. The application can look at things that aren't necessarily infrastructure-centric and can focus on metrics about the application itself. From there, the app can take action on the infrastructure based on its analysis of the environment. This moves the burden of autoscaling from the infrastructure owner to the developers who need to understand the notion that this application will run in this cloud-enabled infrastructure.

In the words of Yogi Berra, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Still, I'm confident that 2017 will be another momentous year for cloud computing.

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About the Author

As Navisite's Cloud Expert, David Grimes is an innovative technology visionary responsible for the strategic direction of the company's architecture and solutions. He has been instrumental in leading both the design and development of the NaviCloud platform. A leader focused on continuous process improvement through new and enabling technologies, David frequently meets with clients to gain market knowledge, evangelize Navisite's vision and develop solutions. Prior to joining Navisite, David was a lead software engineer at AppliedTheory, where he was a key member of the team responsible for developing the patented content delivery technology DeltaEdge. David joined Navisite in 2002 through the acquisition of Clear Blue where he was responsible for overseeing all internal and operational support systems. Under his leadership, he led the transition to an in-house platform that resulted in 50% infrastructure cost reduction. David is a graduate of Syracuse University and holds a Bachelors of Science and Masters in Computer Engineering.

 

Published Tuesday, January 10, 2017 7:01 AM by David Marshall
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