3 Cloud Computing Trends That Will Impact IT Pros in 2022

If 2021 was any indication, demand for cloud computing will continue to expand in 2022. While cloud computing was gaining traction prior to COVID-19, remote work challenges and resource constraints during the pandemic helped accelerate cloud computing trends. 

John Dinsdale, chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research, told ITPro Today that his firm expects an “unrelenting growth” of cloud services in 2022 and beyond. Dinsdale said he expects enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services to race past the $200 billion milestone in 2022.

In 2022, cloud usage will undoubtedly grow, and so too will three nascent cloud computing trends that became increasingly prominent in 2021.

Containers and Cloud-Native Tech Will Grow in the Cloud

What is it? One of the key cloud computing trends to look for in 2022 is the growth ofcontainers, which like Docker, provide a portable and agile way to deploy and manage virtual computing applications in the cloud. With a container, an application workload can run across different clouds and even in hybrid deployments on-premises. The primary method by which users and cloud providers enable containers is via a Kubernetes container orchestration-based platform.

Why are people paying attention to it now? In 2021, 42% of developers said their organizations use containers,reported Lee Sustar, principal analyst at Forrester Research. In 2022, Forrester is forecasting that container adoption will rise to half of all organizations as they either re-factor or re-platform their cloud strategies to focus on even more cloud-native technologies.

Who benefits from it? End-user organizations benefit the most from a container-based approach to cloud workload deployments. Rather than being locked into a single cloud provider platform, a container-based cloud-native approach enables workloads to be deployed across a multicloud or hybrid cloud solution.

Where can you get it? Today, every major public cloud provider has a container service. Microsoft has the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Google has theGoogle Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and Amazon has theElastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Hybrid Cloud from Public Cloud Vendors

What is it?Hybrid cloud enables the integration of both on-premises and public cloud computing resources. Hybrid cloud often is also part of a multicloud strategy, where an organization chooses to deploy resources on-premises and across multiple public cloud providers.

Why are people paying attention to it now? For the last few years, hybrid cloud was championed by technology vendors that sold on-premises technologies, but now public cloud vendors are offering cloudlike experiences on-premises, according to Jesse Stockall, chief architect of cloud management at Snow Software. 

"This is not a good or bad thing, but as companies decide how they will approach their hybrid cloud strategy, they need to consider how much control they want to maintain," Stockall told ITPro Today. "By handing their private cloud to a public cloud vendor, companies may lose some control and ability to customize, but they will gain a unified, consistent private cloud experience."

Who benefits from it? End-user organizations benefit from getting hybrid cloud options from the public cloud vendors as it provides consistency. The public cloud vendors benefit as it provides another revenue stream.

Where can you get it?Amazon Web Services hasAWS Outposts, Google hasAnthos, and Microsoft hasAzure Stack.

Cloud Environmental, ESG Sustainability Efforts Grow

What is it? As the climate change crisis continues, the need for sustainability practices has grown. In cloud computing, there is a growing movement for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). Within ESG, the major public cloud providers have increasingly been pushing their own sustainability efforts and providing new visibility to users.

Why are people paying attention to it now? Climate change is a clear and present danger. Organizations and individuals alike are trying to find ways to be part of the solution, not the problem – so expect ESG sustainability to be one of the top cloud computing trends of 2022.

"As developers, we are trained to think about how to optimize our architectures for factors like security, performance, reliability, and cost," AWS CTO Werner Vogelsblogged. "In 2022, you can add sustainability to that list. What we will begin to see in the coming years is developers taking an active role in building sustainability-conscious architectures that take into account not just the problems they are solving, but the planet as well."

Who benefits from it? Reducing energy usage benefits all living things on the planet. Improved energy utilization can also have a positive financial impact as less usage means less cost.

Where can you get it?Google’s Carbon Footprint dashboard shows organizations how their cloud usage is impacting the environment. Microsoft has a similar tool called the Emissions Impact Dashboard. And at its re:Invent conference in November 2021, AWSannounced its customer Carbon Footprint Tool with availability set for early 2022.

Those are the 2022 cloud trends that we think will impact IT pros the most this year. Do you agree? Sound off below.