Let’s start with a statement: 2020 will look vastly different to anything we have seen in our industry over the past ten years, writes Cloudhelix CEO David Blesovsky. 2019 was the year of change for the cloud provision sector, and this year will see those developments come to fruition. These are the ones we think you’ll want to know more about…
Gate-Crasher turns Change-Maker…
Kubernetes is the gate crasher at the cloud party. Bringing in a drastic rethink on architecture and infrastructure, its revolution is already visible within enterprise-sized businesses and will filter down quickly in the next twelve months.
Its influence on cloud products and providers has been obvious in many ways, but it’s also motivating and perpetuating an interesting move from cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. As we move into 2020, these providers are focusing their efforts to take over on-premise workloads, and Kubernetes’ open-source technology is the lynchpin behind this plan.
Traditionally customers could have servers running onsite, plus storing elements using data centres, and then perhaps some others on public cloud, allowing for quite disparate environments. With the launch of new and updated products – Google’s Anthos, Amazon’s AWS Outposts, and a tweaked stack from Microsoft Azure – not only will on-premise set-ups be controlled by cloud providers, it will also allow for singular management of cloud and on-premise infrastructures, across platforms and providers.
See also: Of Cowboys and K8s: An Idiot’s Guide to Kubernetes
This is going to mean the multi-cloud is going to REAL in 2020. As a managed cloud provider, we manage multiple cloud environments, but also have clients who have dedicated software environments on-premise, around the world. The new products mentioned earlier will allow clients, and us, to have one management plain to control their environment despite all the different platforms being used, and without concerns about the underlying hardware.
This could also mean that the quick-to-deploy benefits of the public cloud are less relevant, and workloads could be transferred or kept on-premise or on a private cloud environment. The evangelism of one platform or one provider will definitely become less common, and gaining control over mixed-media environments no matter the platform will take centre stage.
Cloud 2020: Earlier Tech Gets the Reboot for the Age of Balance…
It’s not just the new kids on the block that are getting the attention of CTOs as we move into the next decade. Ten (plus) years ago, business owners became aware of how virtual machines and desktops could give you more control over your business environment. But there were flaws. Internet speeds, multiple yet-to-be connected platforms, and restrictive Microsoft licensing.
So, cloud technology jumped forwards and looked to be the ‘save all’, until we all realised it wasn’t quite that simple. As mentioned above, there will be more of a balance to discover what works for your business in the next decade, and this is where DaaS steps in to take its place.
Desktop as a Service, the new and improved VM style approach, provides a fully managed virtual desktop instance (VDI), hosted on cloud infrastructure. This gives your users access to your corporate applications and data via a familiar Microsoft Windows desktop experience on almost any connected device.
Microsoft launched their product, Windows Virtual Desktop, in September, and last month saw the launch of our own DaaS offering so we’re happy to be ahead of the pack. Digital transformation is no longer taking place solely at the application level, and DaaS can improve your business’ way of working, delivering proven high performance, offering greater freedom and productivity, providing a risk-free proposition without the need for hardware procurement and overheads.
Security gets Vertical…
Another rush in the industry is the way in which security is handled, with integration being key. We’ve seen acquisitions across the sector being made to enable this move to native security: Microsoft bought BlueTalon in July, Google Alphabet folded its enterprise security company Chronicle into Google Cloud in the second half of 2019, VMware acquired Carbon Black in October, and Broadcom completed on their deal for Symantec in November.
So why are they all jumping into security platforms now? There has been a shift in the market from dealing with multiple suppliers for the products you need, to the expectation of end-to-end supply within a vendor’s stack, and security hasn’t escaped this change.
This means that in 2020, the security landscape will be an interesting one to watch. By building in native security to their cloud platforms, vendors provide value higher up the stack to consumers, whilst naturally gaining more control over their ecosystem with a bulked-out toolset.
Of course, while it is great to have these new technology tools, it is important to remember that the majority of security breaches are due to users and business communities not applying standardised security processes and procedures.
Are your firewalls up to date? Are your operating systems patched? These seemingly boring things are where the majority of data breaches come in, and it’s why we suggest working with a cloud partner like Cloudhelix to ensure that your security foundation is managed, mitigating risk and exposure whilst the lower priority processes are taken care of.
Read this: “A Skeleton Key”: NSA Warns Over Critical Microsoft Cryptography Bug
