2030 Cloud Initiative Deep Dive

Technology is rapidly advancing and businesses have the challenge of catching up. Cloud computing is one of the many tools that aid workflow speed. This modern technology allows delivery and access to multiple services across the internet such as storage, applications, servers, network...etc. Devices from across the world can communicate through a cloud over the internet, which allows speed and efficiency when managing data and storage. Looking at the future there are some predictions of how Cloud computing will continue to advance in the upcoming years. This is where the Cloud 2030 Initiative comes in; it is a virtual space within the cloud-native community that discusses and envisions the future of Cloud Computing. Within this discussion forum there are multiple podcasts and events talking about the next decade of technology and how it will reflect in multiple industries.

General main predictions for Cloud Computing for the upcoming years:

Hybrid Cloud Environments

In the near future, there will be an increase in multi-cloud environments within organizations. Using both public and private in-house cloud services will allow an enhancement in security and efficiency.

Integration of Ai

With the constant growth of Artificial Intelligence, it's only a matter of time until its capabilities are implemented within cloud computing to enhance security and efficiency as well. Integrating Ai will mean that a lot of processes could be automated and can ensure self-maintenance of computing systems.

Improved Security

Cyber attacks will increase along with the growth of cloud computing. With machine learning and artificial intelligence, cloud providers may advance security measures like for example access control, encryption, threat detection, and more.

Blockchain Technology Implementation

This implementation would allow transparent storage and data processing within organizations while simultaniously ensuring protection of public data. Blockchain stores data in groups that are connected through a chain. The data is consistent because it cannot be deleted or changed unless there is a general agreement from the network. Within the creative field, this is an excellent source to manage copyright data, making the management of digital copyrights a more efficient process. This technology has a built-in system that prevents unauthorized processes allowing consistency and security.

Edge Computing Integration

Edge Computing allows devices in multiple locations to process data in the “edge” of a network in a hybrid setting: through a local server or a device. When data needs to be processed, only the most important data is transmitted in the main data center allowing more efficiency. Edge computing also allows an increase in speed when communicating with remote devices, and real-time computing particularly in locations where it was not practical in the past.

Universal Access:

Cloud Computing services will be accessible from any location, making them an essential tool for new businesses.

Main focus: Business Transformation

Cloud Computing’s current focus of transforming IT might shift into a focus of entire business transformation enabling new product development while simultaneously enhancing and accelerating innovation.

More Focus on Cloud-Native Development

This development allows organizations to use microservices and containers for the development processes to be more efficient and at a larger scale.

Cloud Orchestration

Cloud Orchestration allows automation of monitoring, arrangement, and integration of resources ensuring maximum efficiency while keeping the operation at a minimal cost.

Green Cloud Computing Initiatives:

With the increase in climate change, there might be a shift in the upcoming years to make Cloud Computing a more environmentally-sustainable system by making it more energy-efficient.

How can we incorporate this at Baked?

The future of cloud computing has immense potential to reshape how businesses operate, innovate, and grow. With advancements in AI, Blockchain, Edge Computing, and sustainability efforts, we at Baked will have a wide set of tools at our disposal to build more efficient, secure, and adaptable systems. As these technologies continue to evolve, staying informed and embracing change will be essential as we thrive and stay digitally connected across multiple office locations. Currently, we embrace the efficiency of cloud computing by working with Suite as our main cloud storage provider. Looking into the future we might be able to incorporate AWS EC2 as the main remote workstation provider. “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) offers the broadest and deepest compute platform, with over 750 instances and choice of the latest processor, storage, networking, operating system, and purchase model to help you best match the needs of your workload.” AWS EC2 would serve as a complement to Suite, adapting cloud orchestration, cloud-native development, edge computing integration, hybrid cloud environments, and universal access to transform Baked as a VFX business. However, a question remains: What are the advantages of the Administration burden of EC2 vs a turn key solution?

EC2 as a turn key solution would be a prebuilt system (a pre-managed service) that can be fast and easy to implement into our current Suite business process. It would be immediately ready to use once it is implemented at Baked allowing less complexity and potentially lowering upfront costs from custom solutions. However, this approach may reduce administrative control particularly when very specific customization is needed. On the other hand, the biggest advantage of EC2 would be its customization, flexibility, scalability and the full administrative control over all the instances. However, this would add more to the administrative burden. It would require the user to choose the right combination for the workload and manage their own OS updates, security of instances and software installations. Other than this, data between regions can incur costs if not managed effectively, if this occurs the user would be responsible for such costs along with monitoring cost irregularities. Something to keep in mind before implementing EC2 as a turn key solution or not is Baked’s priorities as a business : speed and simplicity vs control and complexity.