In this episode of our series of predictions, we consider the evolutionary nature of the cloud, through architecture, costs management and, in fact, the lower infrastructure levels. We asked our analysts Dana Hernandez, Ivan McPhee, Jon Collins, Whit Walters and William Mcknight for their thoughts.
Jon: We see a maturation of reflection on architecture, not only with cloud computing, but in all technological supply. Keep in mind that what we know under the name of Cloud still represents only 25% of the global space – the other three quarters are on site or hosted in private data centers. Everything must work together as a single theoretical platform, or at least, the more we can do, the more effective we can be.
Although the keyword can be “hybrid”, I expect to see a passage from hybrid environments by accident, to the hybrid by design – actively make decisions according to performance, cost and in fact areas of governance such as sovereignty. Cost management will continue to catalyze this trend, as illustrated by Finops.
Dana: Finops is evolving, many companies considering on -site work or return of the Cloud. At Finopsx, companies were considering mixed costs of over-prime and cloud. Oracle has now joined the Big Three, Microsoft, Google and AWS, and it will be interesting to see who else will intervene.
Jon: Another illustration is repatriation, moving the workloads from the cloud and the return on site.
William: Yes, repatriation is accelerating, but cloud suppliers could answer by 2025, probably by more competitive prices and technical progress which offer greater flexibility and security. We always go strongly to the cloud, and repatriation could take a few years to slow down.
Strand: The supplier’s response to repatriation was interesting. Oracle with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), for example, underestimates competitors with their pricing model, but there is skepticism – customers are worried that Oracle could increase costs later thanks to license problems.
Jon: We also see suppliers of historically pure clouds to accept hybrid models, even if they would probably not say that aloud. AWS on site on-site AWS, for example, can now work with local NetApp storage, and it is likely that this type of partnership will accelerate. I maintain that the “Cloud” must be considered mainly as an architectural construction around the dynamic supply and the elastic scale, and secondarily around which the supplier – recognizing that the accommodation companies can do a better work of resilience. Organizations must first put architecture.
Ivan: We will also see more native cloud tools to manage these workloads. For example, on the SASE / SSE side, companies like Cato Networks contain success because people do not want to install physical devices on the network. We also see this trend in NDR with companies like Lumu Technologies, where security solutions are native of the cloud rather than on site.
Native cloud solutions like Cato Networks and Lumu Technologies have more pricing flexibility than those related to material components. They will be better positioned to adjust prices to stimulate adoption and growth than traditional solutions on site. Some suppliers explore value -based prices, considering factors such as customer commercial value to access strategic accounts. It could be an exciting change when we enter the future.
