Cloud computing services have enjoyed strong growth over the last decade and even more so over the last couple of years, as companies and government organizations adjusted to a world in which remote working and digitally delivered services became ever more important. We can expect to see this growth continue throughout 2022 and beyond, as early adopters look to solidify their positions and latecomers rush to catch up. Some of the cloud trends that are likely to feature most prominently in the latter half of the year are detailed below.
2022 cloud computing trends
Many of the organisations that migrated some of their IT systems to the Cloud over the last 2 years did so primarily to facilitate online meetings and collaboration between geographically dispersed teams. However, we are likely to see other factors drive cloud migrations over the coming months, with organisations to take account of the following:
- Environmental concerns — Climate change remains a key driver of innovation and policy changes for both commercial and government organisations in Australia. With this in mind, we expect to see more companies move the vast majority of their tech systems to the Cloud rather than taking a piecemeal approach. Companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) are able to take advantage of economies of scale and offer more energy-efficient IT infrastructure solutions to their customers. In addition to being more energy-efficient, the data centres they run use a great deal of renewable energy. This makes their cloud solutions highly attractive to organisations in all sectors.
- Mobile app performance improvements — In an effort to maximise performance of mobile apps and services, organisations will look to develop combined edge/cloud computing solutions. Cloud platforms will provide a highly secure and available back end, whilst edge computing will place frequently used data and services much closer to end-users, ensuring optimal performance.
- More digitally delivered public services — Public sector cloud adoption is likely to accelerate as government agencies introduce more digitally delivered services for citizens and businesses in Australia. Plans are already in place to roll out more digital identity management, health care and personal government services and, by 2030, the Australian government aims to make all government services available via secure online portals. A large-scale migration of IT infrastructure, data and applications will make this goal much easier to achieve, which is why we expect the appetite for cloud services in the public sector to be very strong in 2022.
Strong growth is predicted for all types of cloud services in 2022, with those mentioned above being of particular interest to industry watchers. Whether you are a cloud services provider or consumer, it promises to be an exciting year.