The cloud remains the main trend for 2023

Major players from various sectors are investing in cloud computing as a key strategy to reactivate growth after a historic slowdown. These efforts are even more pronounced in Latin America, where the quest to expand service offerings is on the rise in sectors ranging from government to e-commerce.

By 2023, at least 40% of enterprise business workloads are expected to be deployed on cloud platforms and infrastructure services, according to Gartner forecasts. According to the consultancy, by 2025, in response to performance, security and compliance requirements, 60% of organizations will have dedicated cloud services, either in a data center or on a service provider’s premises. This concept is related to two important perspectives that follow the trend: hybrid cloud and edge computing.

A survey conducted late last year by Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions for enterprises, found that by 2022, nearly half (43%) of surveyed corporations expect to have a hybrid cloud strategy, a 5% increase. compared to 2021. The trend of adoption of this technology should remain high: seeking consistency of distributed data, 75% of organizations should implement tools for multicloud data logistics (another term related to the hybrid cloud) by 2024, as Gartner points out.

“Cloud-managed solutions combined with open source form a powerful combination for the development of disruptive tools, able to respond to specific requirements, helping to overcome challenges of any nature and scale, while supporting the adoption and implementation of new cutting-edge technology ., such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and also edge computing,” says Thiago Araki, director of technology and GTM at Red Hat for Latin America.

In an increasingly dynamic, volatile and uncertain environment, organizations must modernize their infrastructure to reduce the complexity of their operations and deliver applications faster. “Offering solutions that modernize legacy processes and create room for innovation frees organizations to focus efforts and resources on what they do best, on their competitive differentiation in the market and on creating value for customers. In this sense, open source solutions lead the way by providing scalability, flexibility, agility, transparency and security at an affordable price,” adds Boris Kuszka, Director of Solution Architects at Red Hat.

During the journey of digitalization of organizations, some trends stand out in the structuring of cloud-native business models. In 2023, specific purposes, the search for scalability and the acceleration of the service portfolio promise to further accelerate the digital transformation of companies and have a more direct impact on the cloud market, Red Hat experts point out.

Modernization is necessary

By 2024, most legacy applications will receive some modernization investment, with cloud services used by 65% ​​of applications to extend functionality or replace inefficient code, a recent Gartner study reveals. Cloud services are emerging as an important ally in this movement, as they enable developers to rapidly develop hybrid cloud-native projects, scale continuously across multiple clouds and geographies, and reduce complexity.

Safety first

According to experts, the increasing number of cyber attacks will keep corporations focused on security. If last year’s research by Red Hat already pointed out that 46% of companies had this topic as a priority for investment, in 2023 this number should increase even more. In this context, managed services in the cloud appear next year as a leading solution on the market, because by offering a unified management platform, they ensure security for collecting and moving data in a hybrid context.

The future of the cloud is vertical

Over the next 18 to 24 months, a growing number of organizations across all industries will begin to explore ways in which the cloud can help them address vertical needs, as highlighted in a Deloitte report. Analysis by the consulting firm predicts that the value of the cloud industry market could reach $640 billion in the next five years. Focused on extracting value from data and scaling their business, companies must increasingly adopt vendor clouds that are connected or interconnected by a specific segment or theme.

The emergence of modular components intended for specific areas of the industry should allow organizations to quickly build differentiated offerings without having to invest efforts in the full development of infrastructure technology. Red Hat OpenShift Data Science is a perfect example of a managed cloud service focused on developing intelligent applications. The solution provides a complete environment for developing, training and testing machine learning (ML) models for artificial intelligence (AI) in the public cloud before they are put into production. Important support to support growth in the adoption of these technologies that could lead to nearly $100 billion in investment by 2023, according to an IDC report.

edge joint

Edge computing platforms represent software and hardware that enable a zero-touch distributed computing architecture, providing security and compatibility with applications near or at the edge. Through open source, edge computing provides the opportunity to extend the open hybrid cloud to data sources and end users, delivering insights and experiences when they’re needed most. It’s no wonder that by the end of 2023, 20% of installed edge platforms will be delivered and operated by hyperscale cloud providers, Gartner predicts.

Platform as a service

Cloud services span levels from infrastructure to platforms and include software and technologies that can be orchestrated through open source solutions to accelerate time to market and achieve maximum efficiency in an agile manner. In less than two years Integration as a Service (iPaaS) i low code (LCAP) must also reach a productivity threshold, the level at which real benefits are demonstrated and accepted by businesses, predicts Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Cloud Platform Services. Functions as a service (FaaS), which enable applications to be managed as functions without the need to maintain their own infrastructure, are expected to generate $24 billion by 2026, according to consulting firm Allied Market Research.

All these trends that are starting to be realized for the next year appear as the right answers to the main needs of the current market. The hybrid cloud, based on managed services based on open source solutions, has proven to be one of the best ways to accelerate application development, address skills gaps, streamline processes and implement a strategic and effective digital transformation path.