ConceptFound | Insights

Let’s face it, 2020 was a turbulent year with unprecedented volatility.

COVID-19 compelled companies worldwide to shift to remote work for social distancing. We can expect to see this change accelerating throughout 2021, and no trend is more relevant to this than cloud computing. The new normal, says Forbes, will fuel the domination of cloud services to support remote team collaboration.

The latest statistics show that 94 percent of enterprises use the cloud, and more than 45 percent of IT spending will shift from traditional servers to the cloud. With an expanding virtual workforce, companies need to act promptly and let employees access corporate resources online regardless of their locations and devices.

Suppose you haven’t known already, the cloud stores and delivers corporate IT resources off to the internet, including databases, applications (apps), servers, software, and networking. Rather than expand their on-premise computing infrastructure, companies can rent access from a cloud service provider to offload costs, improve agility, and acquire the necessary elasticity to scale their businesses.

Empowered by limitless internet access, cloud infrastructure facilitates shared resource pooling that allows team members to share and access the same data at once, from any location and any device. That is, multiple screens can interact simultaneously under a common cloud storage space connected by a single network.

If you want to help your teams move with more velocity and agility, you need the cloud. Here are three cloud trends that are set to define 2021 as we speak:

Since companies continue to support remote workforces, cybersecurity will be the primary perimeter in cloud development. Particularly, Identity and Access Management (IAM) ensures appropriate access to the right digital resources to ensure security and efficiency.

IAM concerns authentication and authorization – verifying users’ identity and granting them access to the entitled data. The proper IAM solution manages users’ digital identity and related access privileges automated or manually. IT administrators can set up and modify user roles, track and report on their activities, and enforce regulatory compliance policies to protect data privacy.

The overarching goal for IAM is to thwart away any unauthorized access and over-privileged access attempts. But nowadays, more sophisticated IAM can do more than that. Other advanced IAM functions include:

Only allow view access.

Only allow access to create, amend, or delete data, not transmit it.

Restrict access to the subsets of data.

An end-to-end IAM implementation will reduce the likelihood of data breaches and ensure that only authenticated users have access. Not only that, IAM can stop the spread of malware, monitor employee productivity, and improve the overall user experience.

The necessity of multi-cloud becomes self-evident during the pandemic.

The best cloud solution for most businesses is neither public or private, but both. An effective multi-cloud strategy allows companies to adopt more than one cloud solution to stay agile. Most businesses today operate more than one cloud platform, either in a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud configuration. More specifically, 93 percent of enterprises report having a multi-cloud strategy (four cloud services on average).

Since not all clouds are created equal, and different company departments or teams often have different needs, companies can now pick and choose the individual elements between cloud service providers that best suit their needs.

Another reason why you should care about multi-cloud is diversification. You don’t want to keep all your eggs in one basket. Going multi-cloud gives businesses access to favorable service terms and conditions while acquiring peace of mind by minimizing dependence on any provider.

One of the challenges with executing a remote/office work model is synchronizing an employee’s work computers in both places, ensuring they have all the same tools and system performance regardless of where they’re working.

The explosion of work-from-home (WFH) requires as many processes as possible in the cloud, such as accounting, human resource planning, customer support, and more.

Enter virtual cloud desktops.

With Desktop as a Service (DaaS), your desktop environment is hosted in the cloud by a third party.

In simple terms, a virtual desktop loads the entire operating system (files, software, and more) on a cloud server and makes it available through web login. Employees can access the company data and applications at home or anywhere else, from any device – iPad, Android device laptop – while keeping data safe at all times.

If an urgent task grips you but you’re not at the office, all you need is an internet connection, and you’ve got all your data and applications to hand.

The landscape of cloud computing has shifted over the last decade, and cloud technology be-came highly relevant. In a huge year of digital transformation, we expect to see more business-es taking advantage of cloud computing in 2021 – from accelerating the demand on IAM to leaning on multi-cloud and virtual cloud desktops. To learn more about scaling your business with the cloud, talk to our expert IT team in a free consultation.