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In the light of the global health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, various organizations have instructed their teams to work from home as one of the precautionary measures to minimize the risk of infection. With the arrival of vaccines early this year, it seems 2021 is bringing a ray of hope for the global economic system.

But it is beyond doubt that the entire coronavirus infection period is going to witness what scientists refer to as “survival of the fittest.” So, the businesses that turn to digital systems and adapt to the “normal” are more likely to emerge out of this global health crisis in a better position to thrive.

Cloud-based solutions are arguably going to be the staple of top performing corporations. Let’s put things in perspective; during the first quarter of 2020, cloud-related spending increased by 37 percent, ushering in a new age of digital transformation where SMEs and enterprise-level organizations perceive cloud-based solutions as a robust way to tide themselves over, particularly during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The world seems to be adapting to the viral effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Capitalizing upon the urgency to operate securely and remotely while cutting operational expenses, cloud service providers had an unlikely good year. It is approximated that IT spending dropped by 8 percent, could the computing market has grown significantly. Having worked on many cloud implementation projects, I pick the following trends during and post-COVID period.

Growing preference for OpEx (operating expense or expenditure) cost model

Cost optimization was already a priority for nearly any organization before the COVID-19 pandemic. But disruptions associated with the pandemic have elevated its stature in managers’ and entrepreneurs’ priority stack. Both startups and enterprise-level organizations continue to seek intelligence to implement flexible cost models, especially those offering pay-as-you-go services. Currently, there is a heated debate regarding OpEx vs. CapEx solutions.

In the pursuit of a “new normal,” cost minimization is an important step. With the OpEx costing model, companies can safely get the total of all their costing parameters while enjoying a higher level of scalability with their services or products. In a recent survey, PwC found that approximately 75 percent of top finance decision makers deploy the OpEx costing model and defer CapEx (capital expenditure) for at least a year.

Generally, cloud-based solutions ensure a higher level of scalability and flexibility in deploying and managing critical organizational operations. Implementing OpEx as a costing model and cloud computing as the deployment model, startups and enterprise-level organizations can achieve faster upgrades, installations, and on-demand flexibility. Note that OpEx is associated with lesser approval time, which means companies can leverage frequent product upgrades.

Additionally, cloud computing means minimal site visiting and maintenance hassles. The OpEx cost model makes it easy to seek cloud hosting services that could cover uninterrupted network infrastructure and desired security levels.

Organizations, both private and government, are more likely to continue upscaling their infrastructure capacity. At the same time, the ongoing economic turbulence in the global economic system, they want to minimize costs. Therefore, cloud-based solutions backed by the OpEx model can set the narrative for data monitoring and storage.

The age of edge computing

Well, edge computing simply brings processing and storage closer to the location (geographical) of data consumption. In addition to fast response time, edge computing saves infrastructure and bandwidth while empowering the provider to deliver a better customer experience.

There is doubt that edge computing is growing more substantial and shows no signs of disappearing any time soon. Cloud computing service providers are more likely to experiment with new models beyond the central control of public clouds and data centers. Nonetheless, companies still seek the innovation of computing in the cloud while improving organizational agility. Edge computing lets companies improvise upon real-time analytics and make smart decisions. Given the growth of predictive analysis in CRMs and other ERP verticals, edge computing is likely to play a significant role in the entire process.

A recent report from IDC reveals that 25 percent of organizations look forward to using solutions that integrate edge data with applications hosted in the cloud by 2024. Already we are witnessing a series of partnerships between cloud and edge computing providers. Telecom service providers are also playing an integral role in driving such hybrid ecosystems. We expect that applications and devices closer to a consumer’s geographical location will continue to play a key role in the fabric of hybrid cloud and IoT models.

The era of native clouds

To fully recover from the COVID-19 hangover, managed service providers must improve their client experience quotient while keeping costs under control. That’s exactly what native cloud computing offers. Through containerization, this technology empowers digital transformation through various strategies for organizations across the spectrum. Given that AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure have already raised green flags, about 60 percent of service providers are likely to offer containerization on cloud platforms.

At its core, the container management repository performs workload transmission between many verticals, including the cloud, on premise, and the edge. Consequently, platforms that lessen complexities in container management are likely to gain explosive acceptance this year and next year. Besides, serverless computing (which was among the top 5 PaaS services in 2020) is still a preferred paradigm for multi-cloud service development.

It’s up to you

Cloud-based solutions are an already dominating force. The COVID-19 pandemic only proved that many enterprise operations could be managed and completed remotely if the right cloud solution implementation is backing them. For this reason, it’s not incorrect to believe that cloud-based solutions providers and other organizations have a huge opportunity.

Advanced Network Professionals’ cloud-based solutions are focused on building robust IT infrastructure for your organization that’s easy to use, secure, and offers high availability of critical data whenever needed. Whether you need custom SaaS solutions, email services, data storage, hosted server, or data backup & recovery, don’t hesitate to contact ANP.