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The Next Phase Of The Cloud Computing Revolution Is Here

Forbes Technology Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Dan Cordingley

Few trends in information technology (IT) have had a greater impact than the rise of cloud computing. In 2016, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leading public cloud provider, brought in $12.2 billion in net sales, a 55% increase over the previous year. Today’s startup companies are practically required to have a cloud strategy or risk losing funding. Not to mention, just about every enterprise CIO has cloud migration and security in their top strategic mandates, and about 70% of organizations have at least one application in the cloud.

The cloud has won, and its momentum is only expected to increase. However, not every company is equally well-positioned to move to the cloud. Companies will need to adjust their strategies and approach to remain competitive over the next decade.

Rich Application Migration

Many companies still have legacy applications that can’t easily make the leap without being modified or rewritten, which is often infeasible given the cost. This is particularly true of graphically intensive applications, such as those employed by oil and gas, media and entertainment, architecture and engineering, and other applications that involve a sophisticated visual modeling of data.

Thanks to improvements in technology and network capacity, innovative technologies (including advanced remoting protocols) make it possible to move even the stubbornest of applications to clouds, both public and private. Rather than re-engineering the applications for the cloud, which may be impossible even for dedicated ISVs to do in a timely fashion, using a remoting protocol can allow applications to run unmodified, just as they would on an on-premise server or workstation. Protocols, which are still relatively new for public cloud providers -- including partner solutions from AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google -- transmit only the user interface of the application over the network as a stream of pixels. No other data leaves the data center where the application is running, other than what is being displayed onscreen at a given moment.

With the inevitable cloud-first future, companies are looking closely at how they can maximize their budgets and ensure that they are able to move necessary applications to the cloud at a reasonable cost. By leveraging unique technologies that support a smooth and secure cloud migration, enterprises have the ability to deliver user experiences from cloud solution providers that are indistinguishable from what users would experience with software running on a local machine, even for graphically demanding applications such as those used in media production or oil exploration.

Running rich applications in the cloud has other advantages, too. For one thing, it eliminates the need to shuttle data between geographically dispersed locations, which becomes increasingly infeasible as complex data sets grow to terabytes or even petabytes in size. Instead, workers on either side of the globe can access and manipulate the same data remotely, without any need for data duplication or redundant storage systems.

Improved Security And Access To Talent

When applications can be moved out of on-premise data centers into public ones, it becomes much easier to enable the modern, global workforce, which is a boon for industries where talent is scarce or difficult to access. More importantly, it helps shift IT costs from capital expenditures to operating expenditures. Freed from the constraints of traditional hardware purchasing cycles, organizations can start small with the cloud services they need today and then grow organically as their needs increase, making resource planning much simpler and more agile.

Companies continue to struggle to access the talent they need. With the right infrastructure in place, they may be able to harness the cloud and take advantage of a range of technical and niche skill sets provided by the growing number of independent workers that now make up 20-30% of the labor force in the U.S. and Europe.

Equally critical is the secure transfer of data. Users cannot complete projects without access to the data they need. And though previous perceptions of cloud security may have been negative, it is quickly becoming a more secure approach, where costs are much lower for most enterprises that are burdened with trying to keep up with the latest security for disparate IT systems.

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The Next Phase Of Cloud

For companies that might wish to go all-in on the cloud, including BMW running its global operations in Microsoft Azure, and Atlassian’s recent move to AWS, there are real possibilities and innovations to support them in the next wave of this revolution -- whereas previously it might have been deemed impossible.

Unfortunately, for many companies, migration and security are still a challenge. Applications that can be made “cloud native” -- meaning they adapt seamlessly to a cloud operating environment -- are few and far between. Some key industries may only be able to allocate less than 5% of their total IT infrastructure budget to build cloud-native apps in one fiscal year. Additionally, security continues to be non-negotiable in a cloud environment. The good news is that there are innovative solutions to help support a cloud-first environment, help companies move rich applications without costly rewrites and ensure the highest levels of security.

For cloud computing to reach its full potential, it will be imperative that companies focus on overcoming these challenges.