2020 Cloud & Software Predictions: A decade in, cloud’s real work begins

The easy days of cloud are finished

Cloud customers and the plethora of cloud vendors have seen the era of simple, easy implementations pass. Most customers have moved the majority of their productivity, CRM, development & test, and web hosting workloads to cloud, which drove the sustained 50%-plus year-to-year revenue growth for vendors in the space over the past 10 years. And while the growth rates may be lower, the good news is that the benefits of cloud are not just a marketing pitch; they are very real for adopting customers. Along the way customers have figured out where cloud is and is not a fit within their environments. They have also realized that public cloud is not the only cloud option and expanded their consideration to include on-premises private, hosted private and the emerging segment of hybrid devices like Azure Stack and Amazon Outposts.

Customers will need to leverage their more mature cloud decision making, honed through early implementations, to address the workloads that remain on premises, which are a challenge and risk to alter in any fashion, whether the delivery method is cloud or not. Supply chain networks, inventory systems and manufacturing systems are IT workloads that defy standardization. If these workloads are to move to cloud delivery, they will require multiple cloud environments and myriad service options to implement and operate these workloads. In short, the real work of applying cloud not simply as a technology but as a solution to core business problems will begin in 2020, and vendors must adjust to accommodate customers’ heightened needs.

This overall landscape will be manifested very specifically in the following trends during 2020 and beyond:

• Executive changes — the initial stewards of cloud’s growth are turning over.
• Cross-vendor cooperation moves from important to necessary.
• Customers eventually favor best-of-suite rather than best-of-breed.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) is being targeted by both direct competition and new market approaches.

2020 Predictions:

• Key software vendors will settle into new leadership styles, while indecision could leave others behind
• Uptick in hybrid cloud adoption drives increase in partnerships to securely support the enterprise journey to digital transformation
• Customers adopt full, single-vendor suites as integrated apps’ capabilities outweigh those of best-of-breed apps

Register for TBR’s webinar 2020 Cloud & Software Predictions webinar, A decade in, cloud’s real work begins, Jan. 8, 2020.

Technology Business Research 2020 Predictions is a special series examining market trends and business changes in key markets. Covered segments include telecom, cloud & software, devices & commercial IoT, data center, and services.