A look at the latest changes and opportunities arising in the world of cloud computing.
In 2023, cloud computing continued to evolve to keep up with the changing priorities of customers. All this change has created additional complexity—and new terminology to go along with it. To help keep track of everything, Equinix takes a look back at some of the biggest cloud topics they covered this year.
1. The next step in the evolution of private cloud
As customers looked to leverage the full power of cloud while avoiding high costs and vendor lock-in, many of them turned to private cloud. Dedicated cloud is the next step in the evolution of private cloud: Just like traditional private cloud, it includes single-tenant compute, storage or analytics infrastructure deployed outside a traditional on-premises environment. The difference is that dedicated cloud pairs this single-tenant infrastructure with multicloud access on demand.
2. Supercloud
Hybrid multicloud is a simple idea that has proven to be surprisingly difficult to execute. You could even argue that true hybrid multicloud—where applications distribute themselves across clouds automatically to achieve the best possible balance of performance, costs and reliability—isn’t even possible today. Supercloud could be the next development that helps make it possible. Supercloud would use a neutral, interconnected staging ground to enable quick and flexible movement of data and workloads among different clouds.
3. Expansion of cloud hyperscalers
Major cloud hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have traditionally focused on operating large compute and storage facilities in core metros. However, their enterprise customers are increasingly looking for infrastructure in edge locations, so hyperscalers are expanding to those locations to meet the demand. To do this, they’re taking a two-pronged approach: building their own private facilities and acquiring space in colocation data centers.
4. Bare metal emerges as a public cloud alternative
In the early days of cloud computing, many businesses took a simplistic lift-and-shift approach to migrating their workloads to cloud. Since these businesses weren’t migrating workloads based on a holistic business strategy, they frequently ended up with a cloud environment that didn’t meet the unique requirements of their different workloads. As a result, it’s no surprise that many businesses are considering post-cloud deployment (also known as cloud repatriation) to move away from public cloud environments that haven’t lived up to expectations. They’re often moving toward hybrid cloud environments that incorporate Bare Metal as a Service (BMaaS) compute and storage. BMaaS can offer a cloud-like experience while also helping you avoid cloud complexity and high costs.
5. Cloud adjacent data storage helps effectively balance cloud priorities
So many of the problems that commonly arise around public cloud—the high egress fees, vendor lock-in and loss of control over data—can be avoided by placing data near the cloud, but not in the cloud. Enterprises can achieve this by building a cloud-adjacent data architecture centered around a core data storage environment with private network connectivity to multiple cloud and edge environments. This allows data and workloads to flow wherever they’re needed most, without cost and complexity standing in the way.
