Peering inside the figurative crystal ball to make sense of the future is irresistable. As we look ahead to 2023, SADA experts are reading the tea leaves, so to speak, to predict what’s coming. Here are five predictions from SADA experts who spend a fair amount of time scanning the horizon.
1. Cloud consumption on the rise
I expect to see continued slow economic growth in 2023 combined with elevated inflation, which will result in higher interest rates. These higher borrowing costs will make cloud migrations relatively more attractive than refreshing or expanding data center workloads. This dynamic is due to the “operational expense” model of the cloud (“pay as you go”), as compared to the “capital expense” data center cost model (large, infrequent purchases of equipment that must be funded upfront). Offsetting these pro-cloud-growth dynamics will be an increased focus on optimization of incumbent cloud workloads and potentially even some shrinkage of workloads in stressed sectors of the economy. Pitting the two against one another, I still expect healthy growth in overall cloud consumption in 2023 –Rich Hoyer, Director of Customer FinOps
2. Multicloud analytics takes off
There are a number of reasons why a customer would choose to implement their architecture on multiple clouds, whether the decision is technology, market, or business driven. Many times this leads to transactional and operational data being stored on multiple cloud platforms. The challenge is how to gain insight into these areas without resorting to implementing multiple, disparate data platforms. Historically, data virtualization tools have been introduced to solve this style of problem, but this gets challenging when working across cloud environments. We are seeing increased emphasis from vendors on this message (Google’s BigQuery Omni is one example) and expect customer adoption to pick up in order to quickly unlock value across data platforms without having to perform migrations. –Brian Suk, Associate CTO
3. Automation needs will increase
This is less of a prediction and more of a wish. Every year, the ways in which the software development lifecycle (SDLC) can be automated increase, making the lives of developers and operations teams potentially easier and easier with each development, letting people focus on adding real value to their companies rather than toiling on busy work. However, what I don’t see is an equal effort in making these new (and sometimes amazing) tools accessible to as many users as possible. Too often I go to see new customers with modern and interesting software who are stuck years behind in SDLC practices because they find the new techniques inaccessible. I would like to see the industry make a real effort to make these generic tools that benefit anyone who creates software more easily accessible to the wide range of companies that develop software–more than just the tech companies and startups. –Peter-Mark Verwoerd, Associate CTO
4. Cloud growth has succeeded but has a long way to go
Cloud makes up for roughly 7-8% of total infrastructure consumption worldwide, and it is markedly more efficient than its alternatives – but, its potential vastly outweighs its current status. Cloud has plenty of room to grow, and can reach 10x or greater than where it’s sitting now. Look for continued expansion and for that 7-8% number to increase. –Miles Ward, CTO
5. Improved user protection
As more and more user data/password breaches occur, companies need to do everything they can to prevent external access to user data. However, one thing that is potentially overlooked is protecting user login pages themselves, and monitoring for things like account takeovers (ATOs). Technologies like reCAPTCHA Enterprise and its competitors can not only detect and mitigate bot-based login attacks, but can also detect whether or not the user is using a password that is part of a known credential breach and prompt them to change their password–all without diminishing the user experience with things like determining if a particular picture has a crosswalk in it. I truly hope we see more and more companies implement these technologies until we can get to a dream state of a passwordless Internet. –Mike Laramie, Associate CTO
Be sure to visit our POWER / SECURITY resources for solutions to establish your secure cloud environment, including User & App Protection.
Note: A version of this article was previously published on VMblog.com
