The Cloud in 2017: Subliminally Disruptive

Thanking 2016

Even though the Cloud technology is not merely new to our World – having been around since the 1970’s – it is only in the year 2016 (“year of the Cloud”) that it started gaining true momentum and widespread usage. The first and most important reason for this shift is the technological advancement that has finally made cloud storage cheaper than in-house storage – the situation that has, until last year, been reversed. The second reason is that, over the past decade, companies with valuable and/or sensitive data have, quite understandably, been reluctant to place this data into the ‘hands’ of a 3rd party provider and entrust that provider with their company’s future. The increasing number of hacking incidents of the past several years, in combination with the constantly improving technology of the cloud providers, have suddenly made these 3rd party companies an option that offers more reliability, safety and security. On top of that, the further progress of globalization has created a higher need for the ability to access work-related files remotely – one of the principal functionalities of the cloud. 2016 was the year that saw the largest growth in cloud investments, investments deemed so important that those companies that have not yet made the switch are said to be too late and to have lost the opportunity to gain the competitive advantage.

Cloud Today

The balance between the benefits and drawback of using the Cloud has been, much like with most new technologies, pulling towards the benefits side as the time goes passes – to arrive to the point of the cloud today inevitably allowing the user more advantages than disadvantages. Not only are programs, documents, and various types of information easier to reach thanks to the multifaceted cloud platforms, but an extra outcome on the individual level is that the personal hard drive results in having more free space. And with the rise of the cloud storage system, the businesses around it are evolving as well. With many upcoming cloud trends for 2017, the sector will see quite a bit of progress. Starting from a growing job market, increased agility, more providers, and even higher revenues, the cloud is unstoppable.

cloud computing architecture

[ Image courtesy : By Sam Johnston – Created by Sam Johnston using OmniGroup‘s OmniGraffle and Inkscape (includes Computer.svg by Sasa Stefanovic)This vector image was created with Inkscape., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link ]

What about the jobs?

One of the few negative, cloud-related details that will sweep the industry this year will be finding qualified specialists to manage this advanced storage unit. Cloud computing calls for experts on the storing mechanism, and when a big company decides to officially switch to the online server, they’re also going to want to have professionals they can count on. The facts that most of the companies that are now using the cloud have made the switch in the past two years and that so many of them have actually done so have resulted in a imbalance in the job demand and job supply – leaving many companies struggling to find skilled and qualified workers. Since acquiring a university degree today normally takes between 3 to 4 years and since companies already need workers, there developed a need for a different solution. This solution came in the form of the several leading companies in the industry – Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure – offering the education and knowledge through their training and certificates, but also in most other companies fully accepting and accrediting these degrees. Apart from the market leaders, there has also been an emergence of a number of start-up companies offering online preparation for Google’s and Amazon’s degrees, as well as their own individual programs – like for instance CloudAcademy and their cloud certifications. With the cloud starting to demand more and more experts, getting certified can lead to working in a myriad of different fields. With the surge of the cloud server in the last year, it’s not only big corporations that need cloud experts, but the smaller ones too. Seeing how beneficial and useful the cloud server is, companies are starting to realize how much easier and free-flowing the information exchange is among workers.

Of course, not everything is perfect; not even the cloud. With many different types of clouds available, from the public to the hybrid, the storage does still have some tiny tweaks to yet be fixed. Nonetheless, the favorable predictions and trends speak for themselves – the cloud is here to stay.

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