Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Key Cloud Trends to Watch in 2022
By Monica
Kumar, SVP of Marketing and Cloud GTM at Nutanix
The last two years have put
significant pressure on organizations to quickly modernize their IT
infrastructure to keep up with an ever-changing landscape. Cloud has indeed
become a must have enabler of innovation. But more and more IT leaders are
learning that cloud is no longer a destination but an operating model. So, what
does this mean for the coming year? Here are some of my predictions for the
year ahead.
IT Outlook:
More Clouds in the Forecast
I expect the shift to the cloud to continue in
full force, and CIOs everywhere will be redefining what that means, and putting
it into action. In 2022 and beyond, moving to the cloud will likely mean
something different for every organization, based on their business needs. For
some, it will be going all-in with a specific public cloud vendor, but for many
others it will mean broadening their mix of public and private cloud
investments to best support each area of the business. For all, it will
certainly mean embracing cloud principles, like agility, flexibility and
automation, to create an IT environment that best works for them.
And while multicloud is already established
and the dominant IT model, we also know there are many challenges in managing a
mixed, cloud environment. As IT leaders focus on building an IT operating model
that best supports their organization, to better support a company's ever-changing
needs, hybrid multicloud will quickly rise to the surface as the ideal
solution.
Redefining
the CIO Role and Accelerating IT
The pandemic has also redefined the role of
the CIO. If before they were often seen as running a "cost center," most
organizations now recognize the CIO as a key role in enabling business strategy
and operations as well as employee productivity.
In the year ahead, reimagining today's IT best
practices and effectively implementing the cloud, will require a strategic
vision centered around enabling business success. From developing a flexible
app-centric approach to IT, to effectively supporting employees in whatever
mode of work they prefer, CIOs will need to look beyond their existing policies
and procedures and, once again, reinvent their playbook to best support the
business. Flexibility will be the center of a successful IT strategy and CIOs
will need to build a cloud operating model capable of supporting that.
Solving
the problem of hybrid data
Data proliferation is often discussed as a key
issue, but we don't often talk about the challenges of managing data in
multiple locations. However, this is the reality and we're not going back. So I
expect 2022 to be the year we take important steps in addressing this issue,
with both vendors and IT leaders working together with this common goal. From
having visibility of all data regardless of location, to ensuring data
protection and governance policies are applied uniformly regardless of which
cloud the data resides in, to providing data security across clouds, to
simplifying database management across multiple clouds, 2022 will be the year
of hybrid data.
What is certain is that
enterprises will require flexibility and IT will continue to be a key enabler
in supporting that. The era of one size-or vendor-fits all is over, and success
will hinge on being at the forefront of this trend.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As SVP Marketing & Cloud Go-To-Market at Nutanix, Monica Kumar is responsible for driving global GTM, messaging, thought leadership and category creation efforts. She plays a critical role in driving awareness of and strategy around Nutanix’s cloud products.