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2024 Cloud Predictions: What IT professionals should expect in the new year

By Frank Suglia, VP of technical services, at BitTitan

As 2023 draws to a close, it's time to prepare for the year ahead and consider some potential cloud and IT trends. With worldwide IT spending predicted to reach over $5 trillion next year, companies are bracing for significant changes and investments in 2024. From cloud migrations to customer loyalty and artificial intelligence's impact on IT, let's take a closer look at 2024's expected trends and how IT professionals can prepare for what's ahead.

Companies will embrace hybrid cloud models (for now)

These past few years, many companies have moved away from on-premises platforms because of waning support. As a result, companies are either migrating fully to the cloud or implementing a hybrid model to take advantage of the cloud's additional security. The move is also driven by various other factors, including cost efficiency, scalability and flexibility.

In 2024, hybrid cloud adoption will likely continue because on-prem systems and processes are familiar to users. However, we may start to see fewer of these hybrid scenarios in the future. Many organizations don't want to manage information and documents in both the cloud and on-prem. Such scenarios can cause data silos and shadow IT while increasing costs. IT professionals with hybrid scenarios should be aware of this delicate balancing act, which causes them to need specific, sometimes costly, resources to manage and support the different systems.

Some companies may even choose to abandon old applications in favor of SaaS solutions. These offer many advantages, including cost savings, automatic updates, accessibility and ease of deployment.

As companies continue to execute migrations in 2024, IT professionals should consider what type of migration scenarios work best for their business needs, operations and end-user experiences.

Artificial intelligence will improve customer and IT services

In 2023, artificial intelligence continued to change industries, transforming how professionals work. In 2024, we will see AI significantly improve customer and IT services. AI can reduce costs and streamline complex tasks that are associated with customer relations.

For example, AI can pull data from disparate systems and generate communication templates to notify customers when they are past due for payment, simplifying this time-consuming process for both IT professionals and customers. This process enables effective communication between IT pros and customers, helping to improve customer service and retention.

AI also can alleviate stress on IT teams so they can focus on more urgent or important work. IT professionals shouldn't be afraid of AI taking jobs. Instead, they should see all the ways AI can improve efficiency and assist them with daily tasks. 

In 2024, we will continue to see IT professionals explore AI's capabilities. For example, AI analyzing data found in data lakes and creating reports with key insights and analytics for IT teams. This could greatly streamline the data analysis process, enabling IT teams to gain insights faster than ever before.

Rising costs will outweigh customer loyalty

As IT costs increase in 2024, fewer companies will remain loyal to their technology providers. Right now, we are seeing companies more willing to switch and migrate to different systems to save on IT costs in the long run.

For example, a substantial change in pricing with Google could cause companies to migrate to Microsoft to reduce overhead costs and preserve resources. This uptick in migrations would mean more companies need migration tools for seamless transitions. Due to this, in 2024, the demand for migration tools will continue to rise, with more companies relying on migration tools to facilitate their move to cost-efficient IT solutions.

Along these lines, end users' preferences are changing, too. While older workers are more likely to use either Google or Microsoft exclusively, we're seeing younger workers switch between numerous systems, depending on job requirements and personal preferences. This trend will likely continue in 2024, especially as costs continue to rise and companies continue to use various systems.

Consolidation and governance will be key as multi-cloud strategies increase

The number of large organizations with multi-cloud strategies is predicted to rise from 76% to 85% during 2024, taking advantage of multi-cloud's lower costs and greater flexibility. However, multi-cloud strategies add complexity to data governance and integration with legacy systems.

For example, shadow IT can cause a security risk because IT professionals don't always know about everything that's happening in their system. There's also cost to consider. IT teams could be paying for licenses they don't know about or duplicate applications being used by different employees and teams.

To combat this, consolidation is key. IT teams should routinely check for these problems, mitigating them as early as possible to ensure costs and operations remain efficient.

Governance is also essential for multi-cloud strategies. Formal framework helps organizations ensure investments support business objectives and help IT teams keep systems optimized. This avoids duplications, unnecessary licenses and other factors that eat up IT spending and cause end-user confusion and frustration. Formal governance and a balance of security measures give employees the freedom to be productive and customize their experience to best meet their needs..

2024: A year of change and transition

The cloud space is evolving, and IT teams need to prepare for whatever gets thrown their way. From customer loyalty curve balls to growing migration demands and the effects of AI, 2024 is set to be a year of change and growth. IT professionals can brace for these changes and implement strategies to make 2024 smooth and headache-free.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank Suglia is the Vice President of Technical Services at BitTitan, where he works closely with the company's customers to adopt new solutions and support their use within existing and new revenue-generating scenarios. His areas of expertise include SaaS, customer success, technical sales and support and enterprise solution delivery.