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Multi-cloud and AI environments will soon be norm

Multi-cloud and AI environments will soon be norm

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Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and SAARC at Veeam Software.

PREDICTIONS 2018

Cloud 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 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.

“Artificial Intelligence enabled through cloud platforms will begin permeating across enterprises, industries and applications”

#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 example 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.

But Availability is about much more than consumers and e-commerce. Far-flung colleagues, more automation and the new flexibility they enable will further change the world we work and live in and, we already expect our work assets and services to be Always-On. Availability is not a choice, it is a base requirement and the time for it is now.


Software vendors are now moving into cloud-scale databases and cloud native offerings managed by artificial intelligence, explains Veeam’s Gregg Petersen.

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