The happenings of this year have turned the forecasts made about 2020 on their head. Although some of the trends in industries such as supply chain and logistics have suffered the most due to coronavirus, cloud computing has continued to define how companies work as most operations have shifted to remote environments. The adoption of cloud computing is promising to increase productivity and reduce operations costs by ensuring a limited investment in infrastructure and office space. With the rise of technologies such as AI, IoT, and blockchain, the cloud is expected to improve substantially. For the coming year, here are some cloud computing trends that will change the existing enterprise set up.

• Multi-cloud platforms will remove barriers between providers

Currently, the biggest challenge among the public cloud service providers, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, among others, with regard to the services they offer, is interoperability. These organizations have projected themselves as having the potential to cover the cloud, data, and compute requirements on one platform.  While this is still the case, the industry is increasingly calling for the increased adoption of hybrid or multi-cloud environments, that allows infrastructure to be deployed across different models. With these calls, there is a possibility of new entrants who will come up with innovations that will simplify the process and linkage between cloud service providers.

• There will be an increased adoption by digital natives

From 2021, millennials will make the largest number of employees across different industries, making a total of as high as 75 percent. With the changes currently taking place in workplaces occasioned by the adoption of technology, most of which are geared towards building a digital workplace, cloud computing is expected to be among the technologies that will be largely adopted. Cloud computing will be adopted more to improve productivity among employees.

• Kubernetes will be increasingly deployed

For years now, containers have been the most preferred approach for application development among public cloud service providers. Many organizations prefer this approach due to its ‘Build It Today And Use It Always’ potential. The rise of Kubernetes has increased the adoption and use of containers by private clouds too. From now on, many new services will be deployed. According to Gartner, most organizations will use two or more centralized resources from 2023. This advancement will be seen from 2021 going forward as organizations position themselves for this adoption.

• Cloud computing will take advantage of AI to improve efficiency and speed

Artificial intelligence is a technology that can no longer be ignored by any industry. With cloud computing, AI is one of the key enablers of various capabilities that will improve service provision throughout 2021. As cloud-as-a-service users and platforms rise, information about the target market, customer preferences, and other usability tools will be needed to address customer needs. Machine learning functions such as language processing and big data analytics will present an opportunity for companies to reach customers and offer what they need to succeed in the competitive landscape. From 2021, AI algorithms will play a critical role in enhancing decision-making among cloud service providers who want to make the right choices based on the needs of the customer.

Generally, as we move into the future, new technologies keep coming up to fill the traditional gaps that cannot match the rising and often changing customer demands. As a new generation becomes increasingly take control of the workplaces, new options will need to be considered. One of the solutions is the development of technologies that will power the dreams of the next workforce.

High performance computing (HPC) is a method for solving large and complex problems in business, science, and engineering. By aggregating available computing power, higher performance can be provided than that which is possible with standard hardware and software. Cutting-edge research in many fields relies on the power available in HPC systems.

The increased performance required by high performance computing is obtained through the use of parallelism. Three primary components are required to create an HPC system. Computing power is provided by networking many compute servers. These servers are known as nodes and allow programs and algorithms to be run simultaneously on each node to increase the speed at which calculations are performed. A fast network and storage infrastructure is required to keep up with the processing speed of the nodes.

At one time, the only means of attaining HPC was through the use of large, mainframe supercomputers. These machines are prohibitively expensive and beyond the means of most organizations. A more economical alternative is to create clusters of nodes from inexpensive components, but this method is still beyond the financial capabilities of many enterprises that may have limited uses for HPC capabilities. 

HPC Cloud Offerings

Public cloud providers have developed HPC functionality that can be used on an as-needed basis. Lowering the costs of high performance computing promises to bring its benefits to many more organizations that could not justify the expense of an on-premises implementation. A company can use cloud-based HPC to conduct research and run simulations that were previously out of reach which allows them to compete with much larger rivals. 

Major cloud providers have added HPC to their portfolios and are leveling the playing field for organizations of all sizes. The following are some examples of available cloud HPC offerings.

AWS HPC - Amazon Web Services offers HPC functionality that includes an integrated suite of services designed to enable enterprises to quickly build and manage HPC clusters. Customers can make use of artificial intelligence and machine learning functionality, fostering innovative solutions.

Azure HPC - Microsoft provides users with a set of computing, networking, and storage resources optimized for high-performance workloads that reduce job execution time from days to minutes.

Google Cloud HPC - Using Google resources, organizations can essentially build a custom supercomputer while retaining the flexibility to only pay for computing power that they need.

These are just a few of the cloud HPC offerings that are bringing enhanced computing power to anyone who needs it.

Overcoming Obstacles to Implementing HPC in the Cloud

Some potential issues may influence whether an organization wants to take advantage of cloud HPC. In cases where an enterprise needs to make extensive use of HPC capabilities, they may opt to retain their on-premises systems. A few considerations when engaging a cloud HPC solution include: 

• Data Security - Security is a priority for all organizations and in the cloud it is a shared responsibility between the customer and provider. In some cases, an enterprise may want more control over data security than possible in the cloud. 

• Data transfer - It can be challenging to move the large quantities of data used in on-premises HPC systems to the cloud.  

• Performance - Latency in cloud networks may be of some concern to customers interested in cloud HPC. 

Cloud providers are addressing these issues as cloud solutions continue to mature and expand their capabilities. It seems that the benefits of inexpensive HPC systems may outweigh the potential problems for all but a few prospective customers. 

The United States’ federal government is a major consumer of computing services. Previous articles have talked about the FedRAMP approval process used to ensure the security and functionality of cloud services before they can be adopted by any federal agencies. This time, we are going to look at how cloud services are being used by the civilian arm of the Federal Government.

The  Federal Cloud Computing Strategy

Cloud Smart is the name given to the updated 2019 Federal Cloud Computing Strategy. The document presents a path that agencies can follow to migrate safely and securely to a cloud infrastructure. Cloud Smart’s goal is to provide agencies with the tools, knowledge, and flexibility to use the cloud to address their specific needs. The strategy focuses on three key areas related to the migration from on-premises computing environments to the cloud.

• Security policies have been modernized to address risk-based decision-making, automation, and enforcing tighter security on data resources.

• Procurement has been streamlined to enable agencies to benefit from shared knowledge and repeatable processes when purchasing cloud solutions.

• Workforce issues will be addressed by a drive to retrain and recruit the appropriate personnel in disciplines such as cybersecurity and cloud engineering.

The Chief Information Officers Council has created a list of 22 actions that speak to these three areas and that will pave the way for agencies to accelerate the adoption of cloud technologies. Some highlights of the actions include:

• Creating a centralized repository to share knowledge and best practices regarding the transition to cloud technologies;
• Developing a policy that covers infrastructure optimization;
• Updating the Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) Policy;
• Implementing FedRAMP effectively to expedite the adoption of low-risk Software-as-a-Service offerings;
• Providing direction to agencies to facilitate the security and visibility of data managed in the cloud;
• Developing a pay scale and compensation strategy to ensure that top technical talent can be recruited and retained.

Agencies that are interested in migrating to cloud services can avail themselves of the resources developed through these actions to ease their transition. The Cloud Smart strategy ensures that all federal agencies approach cloud computing from the same perspective.

The Current Federal Cloud Computing Market

The demand for cloud solutions from federal agencies is estimated to be $6.8 billion in 2020 with expected growth to $7.8 billion in 2022. Key findings from the GovWin Federal Market Analysis team describe several trends in the use of cloud offerings by the federal government.

• Spending is up on Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service solutions while decreasing on Infrastructure-as-a-Service. This may indicate that the majority of agencies have obtained sufficient cloud infrastructure which will now be used to modernize their software portfolios.

• A new Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) policy has removed impediments to the adoption of cloud connectivity solutions.

• Concerns about data management and security are influencing agencies to use cloud services that are more secure than their legacy data centers.

COVID-19 has contributed to the need for cloud solutions that address a remote workforce in many federal agencies just as it has impacted society as a whole. The future looks bright for providers who can meet the requirements of the federal government as its migration continues to pick up speed.

Cloud computing has matured significantly in 2020 than it was the case in the past decade. This has been true in different areas such as pricing, technology and availability of many cloud options. With the increased number of players, picking the best provider has become a challenge which is hard to address because the options you choose depends on the platform and the pricing. Although initial prices are what many people focus on, there is much more in running a cloud than the subscription costs and server capacity. If organizations fail to take charge, the cost of operating cloud can spiral fast and out of control.

Before moving any service to the cloud, there is need for a deeper understanding of some aspects such as the amount of data that flow between servers and between applications, dependencies, and security, access and authentication requirements. Also, understand the services that are offered by the cloud services and the pricing models of providers.

The public cloud is one of the options that you are likely to consider when migrating. One thing you should know is that before anything, a public cloud is like an empty house that you can live in, but you must buy some utilities and install some things if your life is to be good. Unlike private clouds or on-premise services, you share many things with other organizations in the public cloud. In such a shared environment, security is an area of major concern because it is provided just for the data centre. With this in mind, be aware of the cost of running cloud applications such as network costs, firewalls time that the application will be running. Also, take into consideration the cost of migration, disaster recovery plans and staff who are needed to operate the new systems. With all these aspects, what might have appeared as a low-cost system might become too expensive for your organization.

Understanding the characteristics of your service is also crucial. This is the first step before migrating to the cloud. Ensure that you know the features and requirements of the applications that you want to migrate and their design. Although some things might be straightforward, you must always try to understand how applications function before moving them to avoid unnecessary hassles along the way. The best way you can attain this is by ensuring that your internal IT personnel classify data and ask ever department the importance of data.

It would also help if you learned how to calculate charges. Doing this will reveal additional costs for miscellaneous requirements such as IP address, data transfer costs, domain resilience and other things and add to the cost of servers and storage. Always try as much as possible to understand the additional costs and calculate whatever you believe will make migration expensive. Include things such as resilience and service recovery, that are all needed for a safe and secure data migration strategy. For unnecessary cost to be avoided, look closely at the different types of services that are in the market and match your workload and requirements with these options. Consider keeping some applications in-house if migrating to the cloud cannot change things much.

Although everyone looks for services with low cost, it is also important to also compare the quality of service with the prices. A choice might appear less costly, but the services offered may be bad and may cost you in the long run. Never overlook essential elements, such as service delivery and proper risk management strategies. You can run some services in the public cloud, while you can decide to run others on private cloud and leave others in on-premise.

Almost every organization today seems to have embraced cloud computing. This has been occasioned by the advancements that have been made in this area. While the cloud has shown tremendous opportunities, there are various benefits and risks of cloud migration, that you need to consider. Here are the risks and benefits:

Benefits

• Scalability

Cloud services are offered based on demand capacity taking advantage of the pay-as-you-go model. This means that when your company grows due to seasonality, operations will not be affected. Unlike the on-site systems, that depend on the infrastructure that has already been installed, you can increase or downsize any time. For instance, when a business experience high levels of traffic in their existing plan, they can change their plan to accommodate the new traffic.

• Reduced cost

Another major benefit of migrating to the cloud is the reduced costs that can be experienced by organizations. By moving to the cloud, companies can significantly save a lot of money, especially in the long-term. Remember that the cloud does not involve purchasing any on-premise hardware or any upfront investment. Instead, you just buy a specific plan, and you are done. With this, you avoid costs such as those associated with the purchase and operating of servers, electricity costs, and management.

• Increased collaboration

In the modern business environment, collaboration is fast becoming an area of competitiveness that every organization seeks efficiency. Due to this, many companies have increasingly started investing in cloud computing to boost their collaboration efforts. Cloud can be accessed over the internet from anywhere, and employees can work together regardless of the location constraints. Documents and files and be accessed simultaneously and can also be updated in real-time.

• Security

Security is one of the biggest misconceptions of the cloud. In reality, however, one of the benefits of moving to the cloud is improved security. Cloud service providers have the best and strictest security infrastructure and expertise needed in the current era. Cloud providers make cybersecurity their main priority, making the cloud more secure than on-site systems.

Risks

• Speed

For any modern organization, speed is a highly critical factor. As such, a business must never lose speed to be efficient. Unfortunately, speed is a limiting factor for some organizations when it comes to cloud computing. If your organization has applications, databases, or software that requires fast speeds that are above average, the cloud might not meet these needs. The good thing, however, is that cloud service providers often allow testing before migrating your operations.

• Lack of expertise and adequate knowledge

Migrating to the cloud requires the right expertise and people with adequate knowledge. Without this, you will not be able to realize the full potential of the cloud, and migration itself might not be a success. Proper migration requires putting the right systems in place and the right knowledge of these systems. Although the team in your organization may have the necessary expertise on physical hardware, the cloud technology might be too complicated.

• Legal issues and restrictions

The next risk to migrating to the cloud is legal restrictions. Before moving to the cloud, one must first understand if any legal restrictions may deny them an opportunity to migrate. For example, government contractors may not be allowed to put their data in the cloud, making it necessary for them to use on-site solutions for their operations. Some of the common regulations include PCI and HIPAA. Although some cloud service providers have been certified to handle PCI and HIPAA, it still presents a significant risk that cannot be denied.

Whether you are a techie or a professional in a different area that is not related to IT, cloud computing is impacting your job one way or another. This technology has been praised by tech evangelists as a solution to many business problems. It has been tipped to possess the capabilities of turning fortunes of many organizations, both small and big around. Since this technology will impact work in different ways, knowing more about it and becoming savvy can advance your career and may earn you more salary and respect.

Here is what you need to know about cloud computing if you want to land our dream job.

1. Skills of innovation and vision

This is the most critical and often overlooked area by cloud computing enthusiasts and experts. Unlike what many people believe, cloud computing is more than simply changing storage from in-house to a remote location or monthly charges that come with doing so. Instead, it starts with understanding the needs of the business and the potential of this technology on your operations. You need to understand how to embrace this technology and run simulations on new promotions to find out what suits you. Compare what the technology brings and how it compares with using on-site methods.

2. Possess business communication, project management, and leadership skills

The primary reason for choosing cloud over on-site is to enhance operations and improve the business in general. For this reason, anyone working in a cloud company must learn and understand critical business communication skills needed to run operations in an organizational setup. Also, you should have leadership and management skills because these are crucial in pitching and selling cloud services to the customers and managing projects across the organization. Leadership skills allow you to handle projects, both simple and complex, and provide direction in high priority and special projects. With the right business skills, you will be able to recommend the best technological alternatives to clients and evaluate developments in the cloud in comparison with the changes in the business landscape.

3. Have negotiation skills

In the modern business landscape where the customer has the final say, negotiation skills are no longer an option. This is also the case in the cloud computing world where customers must be convinced into accepting to use the services of a given vendor. As an enthusiast who would like to join the industry, you must have the right skills. As an employee, you will be responsible for negotiations, managing relationships with the customers, tracking issues, troubleshooting, and reporting various things. These skills are crucial in explaining to the customer service-level agreements, answering questions on service interruptions, and asserting the advantages of investing in your company’s solutions.

4. Planning skills, and be analytical

Cloud computing solutions are always required to address the needs of each business. This can be achieved by developing flexible solutions that will fit into the needs of each customer regardless of the industry. As a person planning to find a job in a cloud service providing firm, you must have analytical, planning skills and architectural skills, which will enable you to understand problems that a customer needs to be addressed and come up with a viable solution. The same skills will allow understanding of the business needs and translate them into technical requirements.

5. Be technically proficient

This is the last and the most critical skill you should possess to land a job in a cloud company of your choice. Every professional who consumes, manages, or provides cloud services must be technically savvy. You must be proficient in areas such as software engineering and specifically in the development of cloud applications. You must also be knowledgeable in network administration and management and, at the same time, possess cybersecurity skills.

Though only in its nascent stages, the value of cloud infrastructure to robots is key for both deployment (encompassing development, configuration, and installment) and operation (maintenance, analytics, and control). With the popularization of mobile robotics in a wide range of verticals, it will become necessary to utilize the computing power of cloud infrastructure to store and manage the vast troves of collected data as well as to train more advanced algorithms used to power robot cognition.  ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, forecasts the robot-related services powered by cloud computing will reach US$157.8 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

“Since 1961, most commercial robots have been wired or tied to external infrastructure for movement. The next generation of robot deployments will be increasingly mobile, tied to cellular and WIFI connectivity, will consume vast troves of data in order to operate autonomously, and will need effective management through real-time measurements for performance, status and operability,” said Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. Several cloud service providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, have begun collaborating with robotics developers, while start-ups like InOrbit target cloud-enabled operations for the first major deployment of mobile service robots.

“The journey of the robot industry from one of individual vehicles and units, to fleets and larger systems, is being driven by its wider incorporation into the IoT ecosystem. However, it would be a mistake to suggest robots will simply fit in with devices, individual sensors, and stationary machines as part of the wider IoT ecosystem,” Whitton points out. Robots are increasingly sophisticated systems themselves, with multiple sensors and highly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) competencies, and are also expected to move around and act within the world, generating huge amounts of data relative to other machines. “To suggest the cloud alone can provide the computing power to operate these machines is naïve, especially during the slow transition to 5G. Onlookers should instead conceive of adaptable edge-cloud systems that focus on quality over quantity when it comes to robotics operation, data processing, and analysis,” Whitton adds.

The cloud robotics opportunity, defined as Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) revenue for robotics operations combined, will grow from US$3.3 billion in 2019 to US$157.8 billion in 2030, accounting for 30% of the robotic industry’s total worth. On its own, this represents a huge opportunity for start-ups, many of which are beginning to expand on their mission to enable developers to accelerate their go-to-market strategy and to help end-users and operators’ access and manage the ever-increasing fleets of robots. This new robotics ecosystem will be dominated by three subcategories of companies, namely robot developers that move up the value chain and become solution providers, third-party IoT and cloud platform providers focused on best-in-class software solutions, and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud. Those focusing strictly on hardware will lose relative worth and will require partnerships or bold strategies to become solution providers. This can be exemplified by companies like Universal Robots and Fetch Robotics, who have incorporated software and maintenance services into their offering.

“The market is incredibly nascent at present. ABI Research expects consolidation with the most successful robot solution providers and the CSPs expanding their relative influence on the market to take place within the next decade,” says Whitton. The cloud robotics technology is split between vertical innovations, such as developing superior navigation systems, which increase the possibility of what robots can do, and horizontal innovations that expand access and scalability. “Cloud computing represents the most important horizontal innovation for the robotics industry, to date, and will further enable vertical innovations like swarm-based intelligence, autonomous mobility, and advanced manipulation to be deployed at scale,” Whitton concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Cloud Robotics application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial, Collaborative & Commercial Robotics research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Application Analysis reports present in-depth analysis on key market trends and factors for a specific technology.

As businesses continue discovering the benefits that cloud computing can present with regard to efficiency and profitability, the use of cloud technologies continues to skyrocket. In the US for example, at least 70 percent of companies, whether public, private, or hybrid use cloud computing according to research done by IDG in 2016.

Owing to the evidence of the impact of cloud computing which has been seen over time, people are no longer talking about why cloud computing should be adopted. Rather, they now talk about how they can move operations and services to the cloud. These are the issues you need to consider before migrating to the cloud:

1. Make sure your cloud applications are an improvement to the on-premise applications you already have

Every business’ intention is to have systems that are better than what they already have in order to compete favorably in a highly competitive business landscape. This is no exception when migrating to the cloud. Your new cloud systems must give you the competitive edge you need as you cannot afford to lose anything when migrating to the cloud.  Ensure that you only pay for what you will use to avoid duplication and costs. You should ensure that you change everything to meet the shifting demands by improving the efficiency of your systems.

2. Decide where and what processes to start with

Moving to a cloud is not something you start and finish once. Rather, you need to have a concrete plan that involves moving operations in phases to avoid total disaster in case of a failure. Since it is new technology, it requires a phased approach where simple business processes are moved first and lessons learned from the previous phase applied to the next one. For a company that has subsidiaries or branches, you can start with one branch and scale your deployment to other branches.

3. Manage compatibility and interoperability with other vendors

Interoperability is perhaps one of the leading areas of concern when migrating to the cloud. As you select your cloud vendors, one of the leading areas you should investigate is compatibility of architecture and applications with other vendors. Incompatibility can cost your business a lot and can be the cause of problems when you want to migrate to another cloud service provider. You should also address integration issues that can create separate silos and affect operations.

4. Ensure the strategy of your vendor aligns to your company’s business strategy

Failure to align cloud strategy to business strategy remains the single most challenging area for many organizations and ends up jeopardizing everything. Before you commit to a cloud vendor, take your time to acquaint yourself with the architectural requirements of the service provider. Ensure that the service provider you choose offers all the capabilities that a company needs such as reporting options, budgeting features, and planning options as well as regulatory compliance. Most importantly, ensure that the vendor has integration and security strategies that can be verified by other businesses. Furthermore, inquire the investment of the vendor on future technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and IoT all of which signify intentions of the company to adapt to the future as you would always want your company to do.

The cloud is becoming a useful tool for cybercriminals, reports Threat Post. 

Cybercriminals are embracing cloud-based services and technologies in order to accelerate their attacks on organizations and better monetize their wares, researchers have found. 

Read the article on Threat Post

According to Reuters, stock trades in the cloud may soon be the norm.

A pilot by online giant Amazon and two stock exchanges showed how moving share trading from costly physical servers to cloud computing could save money and reduce the potential for outages, the companies said on Friday.

Read the article on Reuters

Google Photos pivot to charging for storage is a reminder that the cloud isn’t infinite, reports TechHQ.

While it might seem like it, the cloud services we rely on each day to store our documents aren’t infinite, endless voids of storage.

Read the article on TechHQ

According to Computerworld, soon PC users will be able use Windows via the Desktop-as-a-service.

Ready or not, here comes Windows as a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) for all users in the forthcoming Microsoft Cloud PC offering.

Read the article on Computerworld

Taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing is not restricted to organizations operating in the private sector. In the United States, local, state, and federal governments make extensive use of public cloud resources. As is customary for all types of government contracts, some assessments and approvals must be obtained before the offerings of a cloud service provider (CSP) can be used by specific agencies. Government contracts can be very lucrative and service providers who want a piece of the business need to demonstrate that their products meet all requirements surrounding security and functionality.

All CSPs that wish to do business with the U.S. federal government need to be assessed and approved by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The program’s goal is to protect the data of U.S. citizens when it is in the cloud and is the most rigorous security framework in use by the government. 

FedRAMP was created to address the problem of different and potentially conflicting requirements for each agency working with cloud providers. FedRAMP provides standard security baselines and processes that simplify the process of obtaining cloud services for both providers and government agencies. Once a CSP achieves FedRAMP approval for an offering, it is listed in the FedRAMP Marketplace to gain visibility across the government.

Navigating the FedRAMP Authorization Process

CSPs that want authorization to provide services to federal agencies need to follow a process comprised of three complementary phases.

In the pre-authorization phase, CSPs should complete FedRAMP training which includes modules that define the baseline security plan. Education can be accessed via online courses, webinars, or in-person training events. A request from the CSP will result in a consultation with government subject matter experts set up by the FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO). To successfully get through this phase of the authorization process, a CSP needs to: 

• Document agency interest in their offering and establish partnerships with agency customers.
• Establish a partnership with an approved third-party assessment organization. 
• Ensure that the service implements the required security controls.

During authorization, a CSP is responsible for developing a package that includes the completion of the System Security Plan. The plan is then assessed by the third-party assessment organization and findings are presented to the CSP for remediation. When all risks have been successfully addressed, the CSP attains authorization and status as a FedRAMP authorized vendor.

In the post-authorization phase of the process, the CSP is required to provide monthly monitoring deliverables to the agency using its service. Failure to provide these documents can result in the service losing its authorization.

The purpose of FedRAMP is to eliminate any confusion regarding the ability of individual agencies to use cloud services. By publishing authorized services on the FedRAMP Marketplace, the authorization process only needs to be done once for each offering. Once approved, it can be used with confidence by any federal agency that wants to use the service. 

This appears to be an example of government working efficiently by reducing the duplicate work that would ensue from individual agencies or departments authorizing CSPs. In a subsequent post, we will take a closer look at the FedRAMP Marketplace and the agencies that use its authorized services. 

The thirst for convenient and scalable computing power has led many organizations to make use of cloud delivery models. This has resulted in a booming worldwide market for cloud computing that is expected to top $350 billion by 2022. With this kind of money in play, the competition to attract customers among cloud providers is fierce. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are two transformative technologies that are gaining traction in many areas of scientific research and business analytics. The cloud offers a platform from which organizations of all sizes can access the level of computing power necessary to conduct research and make effective use of these disciplines. Consequently, major cloud providers have bolstered their portfolios with cutting-edge products designed to attract companies interested in AI and ML.

Developing new solutions or delivering advanced functionality to popular platforms is one way a vendor can stand out against its rivals. A method of gaining a competitive advantage that is enjoying increased popularity among large providers is the use of custom-built hardware that is designed to optimize their software offerings. Let’s take a look at some of the hardware solutions and innovations that cloud vendors are employing to provide enhanced capabilities to their customers. 

Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) are a prime example of hardware dedicated to processing the workloads demanded by AI applications. These are custom-built chips designed specifically to provide the power required by AI systems. The chips are often favored over more traditional graphics cards for the higher speeds they offer. 

Google has developed an infrastructure option called Cloud TPU Pods that use server racks packed with TPUs. They are configured with either 256 or 1,024 TPUs and the larger configurations offer speeds that approach those of supercomputers. The company powers its popular search engine and Google Translate with TPU pods. 

Amazon Web Services’ Graviton processors are custom built by the company using 64-bit ARM Neoverse cores. The processors offer cost-efficient scalability for general-purpose, compute-optimized, and memory-optimized EC2 instances. Second-generation Graviton processors provide an improved price-performance ratio over x86 chips for diverse workloads such as video encoding and CPU-based machine learning. Security is enhanced with always-on 256-bit DRAM encryption, allowing developers to run native cloud applications securely.

Microsoft’s Project Olympus is an open-source solution that incorporates hardware and software modules to create a holistic rack architecture. Project Olympus is part of the Open Compute Project which is releasing technical information to the developer community that may help even the playing field in the server industry. 

The schematics offer a well-defined starting point upon which manufacturers can build custom hardware solutions. Servers built under the auspices of Project Olympus will be infused with high debugging and testing capabilities that will help isolate intermittent and hard to duplicate problems. 

As the computing world’s requirements for faster and more efficient processing continues to grow, the cloud-tech giants will continue to evolve their solutions to meet the demand. The immense resources they wield ensure that when the need calls for it, the financial cost of employing custom hardware will not be an obstacle.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the strategies of many companies, including their spending. This change has tipped the scale in favor of remote technologies, that are now being adopted massively as work turns from office to working from home. With the revenues of many businesses now suffering from the virus, many organizations are trying their best to limit costs as much as possible. This has seen most of them opting for remote work solutions, changing shifts, and putting some staff on unpaid leave to reduce the cost of business. With all these, the cloud appears to be seeing an increase in expenditure as the acquisition of cloud-based solutions increases. Cost is always a major driver for many migrations, but most companies poorly understand it in the beginning.

For startups, it is okay for them to see the value of cloud when they have used non in the past, but when they are still using old systems and legacy software, finding out the potential cost of moving to the cloud is not that easy. However, with the speed of modern business and the rapid response to the coronavirus pandemic, that is aimed at enabling millions of employees to work remotely, it is now clear that living in the world without cloud technology will not be easy in the modern era.

No time in history has exposed many industries than what we are experiencing today. The pandemic has shown the need for IT resources, that are always available led by the cloud. Even with the virus affecting most operations, the cloud has continued to show the reason why people are finding it useful for businesses. As the damage of coronavirus continues affecting office-based operations in different companies, cloud computing is turning out to be the refuge that these businesses look for at such a time of need. Companies are now relying heavily on technology to keep going. According to a report by Flexera, more than 20 percent of companies spend more than $1 million every month on the cloud. This is expected to double in the next 12 months, where projections found that companies will spend up to 47% on average to grow cloud. The report by Flexera based on a survey of 750 decision-makers and users also point out that companies are 23% over the budget. The respondents, however, noted that they are wasting 30% of their cloud expenditure.

Even with the pressure from the coronavirus, companies must devise a way of managing their cloud expenditure. There is a need for a balance between responding to the effects of the pandemic and keeping the expenditure reasonable. Although spending on all other IT categories will go down this year due to the suspension of operations, cloud technologies will still make the most. Companies will need a way of supporting their on-premise resources and improve the working experience of remote employees. The problem, however, is what is needed, and for how long since the time that the pandemic is expected to be over is not known. However, companies must use data from mid-March up to now and project what is required and what is not. Also, this information can help the forecast of what goes up and what will go down.

With the costs going up, companies must employ new tactics to stay on top of the expenses, most of that are unpredictable. Despite the cost management being challenging, as shown by Flexera because of the complexity and difficulty in usage forecasting, businesses should consider monitoring their spending usage and spending daily. They should also ensure that unused workloads are taken down to reduce the cost of operations in such a time when spending needs to be limited as much as possible.

As many industries reevaluate their go-to-market strategies amid the pandemic - not every business is suffering. Take for instance streaming video on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions like Netflix and Disney+ who have seen an increase in viewership as people are mandated to stay home due to Covid-19. But will streaming services see a depletion of subscribers once people venture outdoors again and are all SVODs doing well in this time of uncertainty?

Where other SVOD services have failed to grow (I’m looking at you Quibi), Disney+ wasted no time -amassing nearly 55 million subscribers in just six months. The streaming service that rolled out in November already has more subscribers than Hulu who clocks in at around 32 million.

Netflix which is still the leader in streaming services has a whopping 182.8 million subscribers. During their earnings call in April- Netflix reported that they had 23% more subscribers than this time last year earning $5.7 billion dollars in revenue. While many analysts wonder if these new subscribers will stay once the pandemic is over – at least one Bank of America analyst doesn’t think they should be worried. Nat Schindler told Yahoo Finance,  “We anticipate the step-up will result in a permanent increase in penetration for Netflix's subscriber model and see its low price-point and staple nature supporting healthy fundamentals performance in a recession, even after stay-home orders are lifted.”

While many SVOD services have seen a rise in viewership – what happens when the pandemic is over? Does it really make sense for a family of four to keep subscriptions to all of the available services? The market is getting tight and eventually families will have to make sacrifices as to which streaming services to keep.

In a survey of 1,000 viewers who have more than two SVOD subscriptions, FLIXED found that out of the main streaming services (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+), viewers would most likely drop Apple TV+ over any of their other memberships. Like Disney+ - Apple TV+ debuted in November 2019 but unlike Disney+ met little to no fanfare. The platform that costs just $4.99 doesn’t seem to resonate with viewers as 36% of those surveyed said that they would most likely not renew their subscription to Apple TV+. While Apple has yet to reveal how many subscribers they actually have – analysts put the number at around 30 million – but many of those subscribers are getting it free for the first year. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Berstein told the Financial Post that one of the reasons Apple TV+ has fallen short is because it was "failing to resonate with customers, perhaps due to its limited content offerings."

Like Apple TV+ - Quibi – a much hyped streaming services that delivers shows that are 10 minutes or less to a subscriber’s phone has also failed to resonate with audiences. Debuting in March- Quibi only has 3.5 million subscribers (1.7 million who are considered “active”). While many could blame the series of blunders (not allowing users to share clips online, only available for Android phones)-  owner Jeffrey Katzenberg blames the pandemic – the same pandemic that is helping other SVOD services excel. "I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” he told The New York Times. 

As Covid-19 continues to keep people at home – subscribers will flock to Streaming Video On-Demand services for entertainment. In a convoluted market – not all streaming services will succeed. If the current number of subscribers are any indication - Netflix will continue to reign while SVODs like Apple TV+ and Quibi could be in big trouble.