Cloud computing is growing at a rapid pace, with new trends developing all the time.
So as we come towards the end of 2015, we thought we’d come up with 3 predictions of our own about what we think are going to be some big developments in cloud computing in 2016.
1) Hybrid Cloud
Having seen an 8% increase to 82% of enterprises utilising a hybrid cloud strategy, it seems that the hybrid cloud rush will continue over public and private cloud alternatives.
Hybrid cloud provides numerous benefits, namely its ability to combine the best of both worlds of public and private cloud options. Hybrid cloud computing affords the security associated with private cloud, whilst achieving the cost benefits associated with the economies of scale of public cloud computing.
A hybrid strategy is also much more flexible when it comes to the demands across your projects, providing a solution to the different requirements of each application you may be running. So when it comes to scaling up, hybrid cloud computing allows you to achieve greater server usage at affordable costs, whilst allowing you to keep more sensitive data on private servers.
So don’t be surprised if you see more and more start-ups and SME’s adopting a hybrid cloud strategy.
2) Adoption of Container Technologies
Container technologies are the perfect tool when it comes to efficient resource utilization, particularly when it makes no sense to run a single application on an entire Operating System.
That’s where Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) comes in. With containerization, each container is a type of Operating System virtualization that provides enough resources to run an application, without creating conflict with other application containers running on the same machine. This eliminates the problem of using a whole OS to run one application.
So why do we expect to see growth in the adoption of container technologies? Because CaaS is much more efficient compared to hardware virtualization. And when it comes to Linux containers specifically, they’re so much more efficient when it comes to memory and CPU utilization compared to hardware virtualization.
So keep an eye on the rise of container technologies in 2016.
3) Continuous Delivery
Great news for DevOps teams as cloud services are expected to increase their support for continuous delivery.
With continuous delivery, applications can be updated from the backend and continuously delivered to end users, even whilst they’re in the middle of application usage – but may be none the wiser to any changes. What’s great about continuous delivery is that as the complexity of online applications increases, new updates may be required on a daily basis, perhaps even multiple times a day.
The benefits of increased continuous delivery include more engaged users and overall performance of the application. It also helps DevOps teams specifically by reducing the time taken for bug resolution as well as reducing repetitive tasks.
So 3 development trends to keep a look out for in 2016 are;
- Greater adoption of hybrid cloud computing across enterprise
- Increased containerization for more efficient resource utilization
- More support for continuous delivery
Perhaps one cloud trend that we haven’t discussed is the continued rise of cloud management tools, one of which is Cloud Machine Manager (CMM). Cloud Machine Manager is the cloud on-off switch that allows you to automate, schedule and instantly turn your AWS EC2 cloud servers on and off, rewarding you with up to 90% in cost savings. To find out how much you could save, check out our savings estimator.
