In the next decade, we will experience more progress than in the past 100 years
Peter Diamandis, co-founder of Singularity University
We have always maintained a plotline about the latest cloud developments in our writing. Yet, at the very beginning of the year, 2022 cloud trends seem to be more topical than ever. It goes beyond saying that following the latest technological advances can help you stay ahead of the competition.
Two years after the Coronavirus outbreak, the “new normal” boosted cloud adoption beyond thinking. What is more, it looks to be here to stay. Therefore, we may presume that in 2022 cloud expansion will appear more of a normal development than a novelty.
Here is how this is confirmed by the latest cloud market statistics. Recent research clearly shows that in the new 2022, the cloud will continue to grow steadily from $313 billion in 2020 to $482 billion in 2022.
So, what are the implications of this sustained development? How does it relate to our cloud development plans for the year? Do we need to rethink our IT budget to keep up with the new development pace?
In this article, we will explore the main expectations about 2022 cloud trends that are expected to matter the most for the business during the year. Naturally, we will focus on the key Amazon tech predictions and the cloud leadership position, from which the company is starting the year. We will also give details about some other leading research to help you get hold of the big tech picture.
Following our blog tradition, let’s begin with a video teaser on the topic. Today, we have selected a popular Gartner’s overview of its 2022 top strategic technology predictions. To many, these are some of the most important business triggers that will shape the year to come.
Already intrigued by enriching your 2022 cloud planning? Stay with us to find out more.
A general look at the 2022 cloud trends
No doubt, the profound digital transformation of all sectors has led to the explosion of the cloud beyond thinking. This has not gone unnoticed by both general and specialized reviewers.
The Economic Times, for example, showcases “cloud tech” as an indisputable feature of the new tech uptake. The analysis highlights that by 2022, 70% of companies will embrace various cloud platforms as part of their distributed IT infrastructure (according to McKinsey). Further, it stresses Deloitte’s expectations that in the next 18 to 24 months, more and more businesses will start exploring the industry cloud, which alone is expected to grow to a $640 billion market by 2026.
A look at Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2022, on the other hand, shows that this industry focus will most probably experience a wider vertical expansion to embrace every sector and subsector. Thus, the digital transformation will start to focus not only on meeting the IT needs of a specific industry but also on unique vertical business services which may be easily adopted and built upon for differentiation.
The expansion into new exciting use cases is the first out of the five 2022 cloud trends highlighted by Forbes too. Its article argues that this is going to be supported by the penetration of the ultra-fast 5G and Wi-Fi 6E networks. Another source of growth will be the arrival of the cloud virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Sustainability as a driver of cloud innovation comes second in Forbes’ analysis as more and more businesses turn to adopt zero-carbon strategies. The other three trends include the fast expansion of the hybrid cloud as the most efficient way to handle multi-cloud environments (both public and private) and the rise of AI and serverless in cloud computing.You may keep up to date with the concrete technologies by which the AWS is meeting the latest tech challenges in our monthly recap series here.
The AWS cloud leadership and its 2022 tech predictions
The 2021 AWS cloud leadership
There is a key difference between following a pace and setting a standard, isn’t it? This seems to be even more true against the unprecedented dynamics of the 2020-2022 cloud landscape. It may be wise to keep an eye on during your cloud transformation journey as the cloud scene keeps evolving fast.
In July 2021, one of the most authoritative business sources, i.e. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, ranked the Amazon Web Services (AWS) highest among the global leaders in cloud infrastructure and platform service providers. This recognition applied both to the company’s completeness of vision and its ability to execute (see figure below).
Globally, AWS was distinguished for its diverse portfolio of IT services including cloud-native, edge, ERP and mission-critical workloads. The ranking highlighted AWS innovation leadership, large financial commitment and engineering supply chain as particularly distinctive. Although AWS met certain criticism concerning the complexity of offering, challenging prices and initial offerings, its leadership position remains intact.
You are always welcome to contact us if you encounter a challenge with the platform.
Drawing on this ranking, let’s now turn to explore little further AWS expectations for the top 2022 cloud trends.
Vogel’s top 5 tech predictions for 2022
Unlike previous years’ forecasts, the 2022 predictions generally appear no longer dominated by the conditions of the new normal. AWS makes no exception here. What is more, it has put forth a longer-term and strategic perspective in what is to shape the future cloud.
Put forward by Dr Werner Hans Peter Vogels, AWS 2022 cloud predictions stirred up the spirits of the tech and business community alike. Being the company’s CTO and Vice President in charge of innovation, Dr Vogels has recently also presented the company’s concrete innovation initiatives at AWS Re: Invent 2021.
In a nutshell, here are the top 5 Vogel’s predictions for the year to come and beyond:
- AI innovation is gaining traction – ML is expected to significantly impact the future of software development as it will free software developers from their mundane and repetitive tasks. Thus, it will boost both developers’ creativity and the time needed for creating sophisticated systems. It is expected to also significantly speed up QA, by thus establishing itself as a game-changer in the future of software development. Solutions such as Amazon DevOps Guru are only the first steps of what will become a clear trend.
- The everywhere cloud will be distinctive – with the support of specialized devices and applications, the cloud has the potential to penetrate practically everywhere. This will push cloud limits to enter unexpected environments. We will witness the rise of specialized solutions (for example, Amazon Scout specialized for the “last mile” in ecommerce).
- Smart spaces are increasing with concrete implications for the silver economy – the fast development of smart home applications will focus on the elderly in particular. This is one of the fields where technology has proven its ability to solve human problems. Thanks to these innovations, we will see strengthened development of senior care solutions, and may even expect a new class of homes. An inspiring source of examples in this respect may be found in the various entrepreneurs’ stories of Amazon’s Now Go Build initiative.
- Sustainability is on its way to becoming a new software development standard – in 2022, more and more developers will make a conscious choice on building sustainable applications. Thus, sustainability will be embraced as a key criterion into the established set of optimization criteria such as security, performance, reliability, and cost. As technology uses energy, there will be other advances in supplying green energy for the cloud. However, they will now increasingly become a shared responsibility. Learn more about Amazon’s sustainability commitment here.
- The new wave of connectivity will result in a new class of applications – thanks to low Earth orbit satellites, broadband will become more and more affordable. This has a huge potential to change the life of organizations and individuals alike so that everyone can go online. It will naturally give rise to creating new types of applications, which will be empowered to overcome the network limitations of existing ones. Finally, this will expand the use cases developers can work on and the type of problems they can solve.
We may surely expect to see all five developments during 2022 and beyond. Further, there are hopes that 2022 will be an exciting year for general technological advancement, during which humans will start engaging with the world differently. Explore Vogel’s top 5 predictions in full detail here.
Some further tech drifts to consider
Business implications
Going back to Gartner, there are twelve top strategic technology trends for 2022 that each organization should take into account to ensure its proper growth, digitalization and efficiency. As all of them blend business and technology, they should be considered strategically in IT planning and strategy.
To illustrate, a clear business trend would be the drive towards ensuring a total digital experience that integrates customer, user and employee experiences. Another example features the penetration of composable applications built from modular business components. On the technology side, one can’t skip the continued emphasis on data fabric (integrated data analytics), privacy-enhancing computation (ensuring the protection of personal data), the rise of cloud-native platforms, AI Engineering, etc.
Each of these twelve tech trends is certain to result in at least one of the following three aspects:
- engineering trust – relating to the organization’s ability to more securely process data in the cloud and non-cloud environments;
- sculpting change – referring to the organization’s capacity to scale and accelerate its digitalization, as well as to respond to change;
- accelerating growth – directly relating to the opportunity to unleash the IT force which can maximize value creation and enhance capabilities.
If you are interested in exploring these further, take advantage of Gartner’s dedicated publication here.
Specific industry considerations
Advances in technologies more often than not are associated with economic growth. Yet, according to some analysts (e.g. McKinsey), the changes of the present day may be much more profound as they have the power to change not only the economy but also the speed of scientific breakthroughs. Consequently, we may expect them to start penetrating different aspects of our life.
Probably, you have started wondering about how 2022 tech trends are going to affect specific sectors. Largely, the new tech trends are believed to exert their impact across all industry verticals, albeit in varying degrees.
The next slide of McKinsey’s top trends in tech casts some further light on the issue. The left-hand part of the slide features the key tech trends that will matter most to companies according to the conducted research, whereas the right-hand part mirrors their influence on selected sectors. If you would like to explore this in further detail, please click here.
Conclusion
A lot has been said about the upcoming 2022 cloud trends, and there will be probably more to come. Yet, one thing remains certain. The profound digital transformation of sectors that emerged as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak is now entering into its new stage that will continue pushing cloud limits into new and unexpected areas.
Thus, “the everywhere cloud” stands out as one of the key features of the new digital shift the 2022 businesses and societies will experience. Therefore, it will remain a sustained focus of our attention.Should you be interested in exploring further a specific cloud development, do drop us a line.
