• Edge computing will drive hybrid adoption

Companies will go hybrid cloud for many reasons, but one thing that will increasingly drive its intentional adoption is edge computing. The adoption of edge computing will require mature hybrid cloud architecture with a centralized deployment model and a hyper-connected computing ecosystem delivered through localized processing and connected networks. This is far beyond the normal cloud.

• Regulated industries will go hybrid

Companies are doing their best to decentralize their IT operations. As the decentralization gains momentum, most of them will go hybrid cloud rapidly, most of them being those in the highly regulated industries. This is because of the availability of security measures that will enable them to isolate sensitive information and ensure the integrity and zero trust strategies while at the same time being in a position to enjoy the benefits of the cloud. As this happens, security technologies offered by the hybrid cloud such as Confidential Cloud Computing and Quantum-safe will become common.

• The increasing open-source tools will unify clouds

As the number of open-source tools continues growing, it will soon become easy to integrate many clouds and on-premise systems into one hybrid platform by shortening learning for programmers and other stakeholders. This means that deployment of a hybrid cloud will be easy for people with little cloud computing expertise while those responsible for the development will be freed for other crucial roles.

• Advanced powerful hybrid cloud innovations

As the hybrid cloud's interest continues rising, we should expect to see more advanced hardware innovations in the future. One of the areas that are likely to come strong is the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence-based hardware, which will be used to deploy AI models.  As the deployment of 5G continues spreading worldwide, sustainable AI at the edge will be needed to offer support in areas such as security, privacy, and processing of data. Most of the change we expect this year will be focused on improving the efficiency of edge computing to help businesses address several challenges and manage hybrid cloud environments as needed.

• Hybrid cloud will be entrenched in IoT

Although most organizations initially adopted hybrid cloud “accidentally,” most of them are now realizing that they can get more than they anticipated. One of the things you can change operations with hybrid cloud is entrenching it to IoT. We expect to see growing focus on smart hybrid cloud in the year ahead, which maximize the relationship between IoT and hybrid cloud. While this occurs, expect tighter restrictions on data governance, strong security regimes, and other modernization strategies. Although cloud services were adopted more during the pandemic than ever before, organizations are still looking for ways to capitalize on the investments they made. One of them might be interlinking it with IoT.

Generally, the advancements we expect in the hybrid cloud will be geared towards improvements in artificial intelligence’s power and efficiency. This is what businesses need to address most challenges and securely deploy and manage hybrid cloud services and infrastructure.