Trends for 2019 - Cloud, AI and more

Posted 14 January 2019

The pace of innovation in the digital space and online world is continuing, with underlying trends that are continuing to boom.

We will be releasing a three-part article series where, we will pick apart some major components and trends for the coming year ahead. Today we are focussing on the Cloud and advanced technologies such as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Cloud Computing

Cloud provides faster, flexible resources and economies of scale. It adapts as your business needs change and you only pay for what you use, providing businesses with specific solutions for their data needs. 

In 2019, the Cloud expansion will continue, but private cloud will start to shrink. Organisations have seen the benefits of subscription-based SaaS, for providers that are progressive and proactive in the maintenance of their service. At the service-provider level, a combination of Serverless, IaaS and PaaS, will continue to outpace the private cloud. There is no doubt that Cloud will continue to be significant and evolve for all businesses.

Cloud rationalisation is accelerating in the Hyper-Scale Cloud Providers - as demonstrated by a shrinking portfolio of competitors in the likes Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Cloud Providers.

Serverless approaches will become more prominent, as customers get comfortable with the level of customisation for those operating models. The Operating System will become more transparent, leaving developers to focus on the levels of protocols and API.

Microsoft Office 365 will also continue to dominate in the office productivity space, with the presence of self-managed email solutions to reduce.  The effectiveness of a vendor managed patched and maintained Dynamics 365 service, means that customers will only need to monitor and audit the logical access permissions.

Experimentation with ML, AI and other advanced technologies

Experimentation with new technologies will boom in 2019, as cloud services make advanced tools more accessible. Techniques such as machine learning, image recognition and artificial intelligence are now available at a relatively low cost, without the need for significant hardware investment.

Legacy waterfall development styles, which see coding and release times often stretching to months, will disappear as organisations move towards short, sharp, and self-contained IT projects.

Containerisation and microservices will be key for experimentation, enabling the separation of components so they can grow or fail in isolation. Centralised data lakes will become more common, as businesses create pools of data for analysis with new cloud tools. 

Cloud and IP networks are driving digital transformation, and Modis sits at the core of this for many of our largest Enterprise and Public Sector clients across Australia.  If you are looking for solutions for your business please read 'What to Look Out For When Selecting a Subscription Billing Vendor' to get an insight into what to look for, in order to be successful.