Cloud technology is maturing. Most of our communication, work, and entertainment is already stored and run on a remote 3rd party server, and there are no signs that would indicate this path changing. Taking the next necessary step means implementing multi-clouds and taking advantage of hybrid computing. There is no doubt that this step brings new and very attractive opportunities for businesses of all sizes. But new developments can also mean new challenges.

Every single day, half a million new malicious programs and potentially unwanted applications are detected. These are serious hazards that can present a direct threat to the daily operations of various organisations, impacting critical assets, data, and the availability of services.

The world is talking more and more about CO2 emissions but it has only recently become common knowledge that technology and virtual aspects of our life – whether e-mail, posting on social media, or simply watching movies online – have a very clear impact on nature. The seemingly 100% virtual cloud is actually no different from other industries that depend on energy – it uses electricity to empower services and cool its servers, to maintain security, and to transfer data. All of this has a clear impact on sustainability at this very moment, but it also affects the criteria that businesses have for buying cloud services.

The cloud is already decade-old technology but continues to be a hot topic in 2022. We will see some new challenges in cloud security, turbulent changes in data analytics and IT roles, and growing attention towards the environment. Despite the challenges, the cloud has proven to be something that can be trusted, and this year we will finally see large fintech enterprises moving more and more from on-premises solutions to cloud or hybrid solutions. Blockchain is another important keyword to keep in mind in 2022 – but not only in connection to cryptocurrency but also increasingly to cloud technology.

For a decade, the cloud has been the fastest growing tech wunderkind and has been impossible to ignore. But since the COVID-19 crisis hit the world, the cloud computing market has been on a steep upward trajectory. Cloud adoption, infrastructure, development, and spending – every aspect of the cloud has been rapidly growing, and we can see no end to it. At least not in the next few years.