Although businesses had already started adopting cloud solutions, the pandemic has significantly increased opportunities for the cloud applications market this year. The growth of this market is linked majorly with the increased adoption of cloud applications. These apps will enable remote working and sustained service delivery. After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, all businesses in different sectors of the economy were forced to adopt remote working solutions. Thus the cloud gave these organizations remote application access. This has allowed employees and partners to do their work efficiently and deliver services to customers even as this has never been experienced anywhere before.

According to a recent survey by the International Data Corporation (IDC), there will be an increase in technology-based infrastructure this year. Accordingly, one of the areas that have increased investment based on this research is cloud computing, that has been pushed by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent work-from-home policy. IDC research found that the cloud demand will continue to increase while cloud software purchases will become a new normal even after the pandemic. Research Dive, on the other hand, posits that the cloud computing application market will grow at a CAGR of about 18%, with projected revenue of $437 billion between 2019 and 2026. This could be more because the time the study projected started in 2019 before the pandemic changed everything. The majority of those embracing the cloud are large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), all of that are expected to increase at a CAGR of about 19% between now and 2026. The adoption of cloud-based applications by SMEs is also an advantage in many ways. One of the reasons is that it reduces the cost associated with setting up a data center and allowing employees to access applications from wherever they are during these difficult moments.

Cloud adoption is no longer a preserve of businesses alone. Media companies, educational institutions are also moving their activities to the cloud during this period. Cloud applications are used by students to study at home as learning becomes virtual across the world. Media companies such as Netflix are also increasingly investing in the content delivery systems when many people are stuck at home due to the pandemic. These platforms are slowly killing the mailing of DVDs. Communication platforms such as Skype and Zoom are increasingly being adopted. This eliminates traditional face-to-face meetings.

With the rise of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data and the increased competition in the business landscape, then the unprecedented entry of the pandemic, clouds promises to bring together the needs of a business. More companies are fast coming to terms with the valuable advantages provided by the cloud due to the restrictions that have been caused by the pandemic. Perhaps it is now the time the world embraces the new normal and start offering services such as telemedicine, virtual learning, and work-from-home, some of that we have increasingly been adopted during the coronavirus period.