Digital Transformation Through Agile Delivery
IT Agility AbilityTM
Digital Transformation Through Agile Delivery
IT Agility AbilityTM

2017: The Cloud Continues To Dominate

By . December 20, 2018
Since returning from the Christmas break I have spent the early part of 2017 meeting with senior IT infrastructure professionals on discussing their plans for the coming year. These meetings have included decision makers at multinational corporations to SME’s with internal IT functions. Despite the difference in resources and users one topic continues to dominate the technical direction of IT infrastructures, and that is the cloud.

As predicted 2016 was the year the cloud started to dominate the IT landscape. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are still the big players with regards to cloud services. Operator and vendor revenues across the main cloud services and infrastructure market segments hit £120.5bn in 2016 growing at 25% annually, according to the latest note from analyst firm Synergy Research.

With the cloud being such a relevant subject for 2017 I’m always interested in technical developments and how this is going to impact the IT industry in the coming months and years.

Google’s Cloud Platform has been playing catch up to AWS and Azure for a number of years and only launched their public cloud offering in 2012 – 6 years after AWS. However since the appointment of VMware co-founder Diane Greene in late 2015 the direction of Google’s cloud service changed direction for the better and 2017 might be time to take note of Google’s cloud service.

For example Google has announced the launch of Cloud Key Management Service (KMS), which enables admins to manage their encryption keys in Google Cloud Platform without maintaining an on-premise management system.

A KMS activates computers on a local network, eliminating the need for individual computers to connect. The news marks Google’s entry into this particular security arena, following AWS and Microsoft who launched such initiatives as far back as 2014 and 2015 respectively.

“Customers in regulated industries, such as financial services and healthcare, value hosted key management services for the ease of use and peace of mind that they provide,” wrote Maya Kaczorowski, Google Cloud Platform product manager in a blog post. “Cloud KMS offers a cloud-based root of trust that you can monitor and audit.

“As an alternative to custom-built or ad-hoc key management systems, which are difficult to scale and maintain, Cloud KMS makes it easy to keep your keys safe,” Kaczorowski added.

This is just one example of another cloud provider outside the big 2 improving their service to try and gain market share. It’s going to be interesting to see what other cloud innovations we’re going to see in 2017 and how the land lays in 2018.

I’d be interested to hear how organisations are approaching the cloud and how it is impacting their IT infrastructure this year. How will affect the service you provide? Will experience with cloud technologies influence your recruiting decisions? Please comment with any thoughts or opinions below.

Phil Lillicrapp 

– Recruitment Consultant – Infrastructure Specialist

 

For more information on virtualisation and cloud technology market, contact Phil Lillicrapp

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