Apart from the major security attacks on iCloud, Target, Home Depot and most recently Sony Pictures, the year 2014 lived up to the predicted cloud architecture trends that were very promising: The number of organizations experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service grew to 94% With about 54% of the market, Amazon web services continued dominating the market with […]
Apart from the major security attacks on iCloud, Target, Home Depot and most recently Sony Pictures, the year 2014 lived up to the predicted cloud architecture trends that were very promising:
The number of organizations experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service grew to 94%
With about 54% of the market, Amazon web services continued dominating the market with extensive cloud architecture resources, while other service providers battled for second place.
The number of cloud users who regarded implementing stable and impenetrable cloud security infrastructure as a challenge significantly reduced. Consequently, despite the major attacks, confidence in cloud security architecture grew.
76% of organizations which heavily rely on the cloud embraced DevOps, while 68% were focused on Self-Service IT.
Overall, there was a feeling that the improved cloud architecture and resources significantly contributed to greater benefits in 2014 compared to previous years.
Evidently, the year 2014 lay a promising foundation for the year 2015. This new chapter comes with a lot of predictions centered on improved service delivery, increased market competition and upgraded IT technologies. A lot is expected from cloud service providers as they leverage improved technologies to boost their services and subsequently attract more users. Cloud users on the other hand, will be seeking custom-tailored services, supported by stable endpoint platforms, front end platforms and networks.
To expound on this in detail, here are the top cloud architecture predictions for 2015:
Containers Will Gain Momentum
Containers-as-a-service is the primary infrastructure-as-a-service which will steer the cloud rush into new heights over the next year. Proven to be more effectual than typical hardware virtualization, developers are exceedingly leveraging it to boost the efficiency of cloud applications by increasing resource efficacy.
Organizations which are still utilizing hardware virtualization face a critical cloud infrastructure problem that containers were made to solve- Their cloud applications consume immense resources in CPU utilization, disk space and memory, since they require an entire operating system to support a single application. This consequently creates conflicts between applications running on the same machine. Containers, which are a form of operating system virtualization, eliminate this problem by dedicating resources according to the scope of the respective applications. This ultimately eliminates all conflicts with other applications hosted on the same machine.
Currently, platform-as-a-service infrastructures including CloudFoundry, dotCloud, Openshift, Heroku, and many more are utilizing containers. With trend also cropping up into private cloud infrastructures like Cloudstack and Openstack, the numbers are expected to grow exponentially in 2015.
Hybrid and Private Cloud Growth Would Surpass Public Cloud
According to Technology Business Research, public cloud adoption will experience significant growth in 2015, projected to have a growth rate of 25%. Although these numbers make 2015 one of the principal cloud infrastructural implementation and growth years, they are small compared to the predictions of private and hybrid cloud.
2015 is expected to experience an extensive private and hybrid cloud movement, where private cloud would grow by 35% and hybrid cloud infrastructure will predictably grow by whopping 50%. Organizations are likely to combine physical application infrastructure with public and private cloud to improve overall operations and service delivery, subsequently pushing the cloud market to an all-time high of $118 billion.
Cloud experts and Industry analysts are advising organizations to form private/ hybrid solutions by focusing their resources on integrating their applications with dynamic data infrastructures. To ensure all the elements communicate efficaciously to smoothly perform their functions, they should determine the standard guidelines on how the public cloud resources will combine with the respective internal system components for effective hybrid environments.
Workloads Will Be Protected By Software-Defined Security
Currently, most data centers security protocols are hardware based. The perimeters are protected by hardware-defined security systems, which if infiltrated, expose the data to a wide range of threats, including data loss. This is projected to change over the next year, with organizations embracing software-defined security systems which will be part of the cloud workloads. Cloud architects are expected to define the security systems which will accompany virtual machines, containers, storage systems and the network with software systems. Ultimately, security will be critically attached to the software, consequently protecting the entire workload by accompanying the movements of the system.
Such a security system utilizes a software mapping system which scans the entire cloud system to define the data perimeters as determined by the cloud architect. The perimeter is monitored by a central monitoring system, from where access, data distribution and surveillance is controlled. Any activities which don’t adhere to the standard security protocols like unauthorized access are flagged down and intervened.
Cloud Portability Will Boost Inter-Cloud Movement
Currently, most cloud applications and resources are cloud-fixed- they are tied to their host clouds and cannot be moved to other cloud infrastructures due to resource limitations. This is expected to change in 2015, with developers and cloud architects focusing on agnostic workflows which can be shifted to any stable cloud infrastructure. With fluid applications, organizations will easily shift between public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure without drastic resource alterations.
Of course for this to proceed smoothly, more storage systems, networks, containers and virtual machines need to be defined in such a way that they are flexible enough to efficiently support portable applications. Increased portability also means that cloud vendors will not only vend cloud infrastructure, but also separate applications which can be run on dedicated private cloud systems.
Since this list has only highlighted the most critical predictions, more are expected to continue sprouting as the year wears off. Most of them are expected to have profound effect on cloud technologies, especially since organizations are keen on leveraging fresher, more efficient strategies to optimize their cloud operations and service delivery. As you learn about these evolving technologies, remember to critically assess them in terms of how they stand to affect your organizational cloud architecture. This will consequently help you make an informed decision on what to and what not to embrace.
