Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023. Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Top predictions for cloud use in 2023
By Chirag Khanijau, vice president of Cloud Services, Hexaware
Google Drive surpassed one billion users in 2018 and the milestone confirmed something many already believed: The cloud is a critical innovation, here to stay. Four years later, the cloud’s persistence is practically a given with nearly 9 out of 10 organizations using cloud computing to some degree.
But despite widespread adoption, most organizations have yet to jump into the deep end and host their entire workloads in the cloud. Before making the dive, many organizations will need to backtrack on their use of the cloud to get the fundamentals right.
Now it’s time to turn an eye toward increasing its effectiveness. With a possible recession looming, industry leaders need to make critical decisions that will determine how to make it through to the other side. The right cloud practices can help their organizations gain agility and cost savings, but without them organizations will continue to face higher costs and limited effectiveness.
3 rules cloud users need to get right in 2023
The cloud already contains over half of the corporate world’s data and cloud usage is only expected to grow. While the past few years were focused on adoption, I anticipate many organizations will now prioritize refinement.
Here are three practices that I predict strategic cloud users will work on getting right in 2023:
1. You need rules to play a good game
In the rush for modernization, many organizations adopted the cloud before drawing lines in the sand. But proper governance is essential to ensure the cloud is working efficiently and effectively. Without it, companies may be spending more on the cloud than they need to. In fact, (about a third of cloud users self-estimate they spend more on cloud than they should).
With additional rate hikes and a recession on the horizon, smart companies will closely examine the costs of their cloud investments. The lack of governance will likely surface as an opportunity to manage costs and implement policies they’ve needed all along.
Specifically, I anticipate organizations will focus on forming protocols to properly manage system integrations and data security as they move to the cloud. These will inform procedures to rightsize server resources and operations, and automate active workloads to maximize cloud efficiency and reduce costs.
2. Walk before you run
In the next few years, I predict the cloud will become the core infrastructure that company operations are run and built on – 85% of organizations anticipate taking on cloud-first principles in the next two years. But without the right strategies, many will fail.
To ensure a successful transition, leading organizations will better strategize their moves to the cloud. In the past, older operations moved to run at cloud speed then leaped into migration. Now, leading companies will pay more attention to crafting right-fit, detailed transition plans to prevent hasty and haphazard migrations. Change management will become a top priority, including parameters for governance, department-specific guidelines for cloud use and means to track analytics to monitor cloud efficacy.
These well-designed plans will be even more critical for keeping pace in a challenging economic climate. As consumers stay home and opt for online purchases, organizations that largely depend on their legacy operations will be ill-prepared to respond to the exponential growth of online transactions. But as we’ve seen in the last few years, organizations on the cloud are better positioned to meet demand.
3. It takes two to tango
As the cloud matures and proliferates, organizations have more choices than ever before. To increase agility and effectiveness, cloud users will select cloud vendors with expertise in their industry. Smart organizations realize it’s not worth investing in systems that aren’t built for their specific needs. The savviest users will look for cloud providers that provide industry-specific capabilities.
With only three services accounting for 80% of the global cloud market, cloud providers are casting a wide net. So going forward, the more industry-specific the cloud provider, the better. This could manifest in various ways, from AWS’ cloud service targeting healthcare monitoring and assistance to Azure’s slightly broader Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services.
In the same way that cloud users will be looking for more industry expertise, I expect cloud vendors to prioritize developing industry-specific capabilities. For cloud providers to stay competitive, they’ll have to cater to this demand for specialization.
Adapt with the times
2023 will distinguish the true cloud leaders from the followers. Forward-thinking organizations will prioritize governance around cost-cutting measures, strategic transition plans for cloud adoption and industry-specific cloud partners. Is your organization ready?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chirag Khanijau, Vice President, Cloud Services, Hexaware Technologies
As a global technology leader, Chirag has guided Fortune 500 brands in using the power of the cloud and automation technologies to transform their businesses. As Hexaware’s North America leader for Cloud Strategy and Platforms, he has led many innovative technology programs for clients providing full stack of cloud services spanning strategy, industry-specific cloud journeys, cloud data, migration, and modernization. In the past, Chirag has helped over 50 global customers while leading the digital transformation and cloud programs for IBM and DXC.
