The role of cloud computing now is also expanding in the enterprise narrative. Once a method to drive time and cost efficiency, the cloud is emerging as a dynamic force that drives innovation and agility across a diverse range of industries.
The cloud market continues to mature as the technology becomes the ultimate business enabler. In 2024, the global expenditure on cloud computing infrastructure is set to cross the $1 trillion mark as more businesses join the digital revolution.
The evolution and innovation of cloud infrastructures also continue owing to technological advances in fields like AI, the rise of real-time systems and applications, and the increasing performance demands from systems and applications.
As data becomes the ultimate currency, most organizations are looking at leveraging real-time data to get up-to-the-minute insights and get transformative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and quantum computing to do more heavy lifting.
While cloud computing trends are always in discussion, in this blog we take a look at why enterprises need to look at Real-time Cloud Infrastructure and why it is one of ‘the’ trends to watch in 2024.
Advancement and Acceleration in AI Capabilities
One technology that has continued to generate significant interest is Artificial Intelligence. 2023 can be counted almost like a watershed moment for AI as Generative AI burst onto the scene and wowed the world with all that it could do.
Enterprises and research organizations have been experimenting with Generative AI and realizing that this new poster child has many use cases and the potential to impact the future of work. These technologies also need significant computational power and access to real-time data for intelligent analytics that fuel powerful insights and offer unprecedented opportunities for data-driven decision-making and furthering innovation agendas.
Further, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Service (AIaaS) is also gaining a foothold as enterprises look towards integrating AI services into cloud offerings. AIaaS enables enterprises to access pre-built AI models, tools, and APIs and enables easier implementation of AI-driven functionalities. All these functions need to be fueled by real-time data for powerful insights.
A real-time cloud infrastructure becomes a critical enabler of these capacities and enables instant access to real-time data to power these algorithms.
The Need for Greater Scalability
Real-time cloud infrastructures are gradually rising in prominence as enterprises demand instantaneous data processing and response capabilities. This need is emerging owing to constant market disruptions, technology evolution, and rapidly changing customer demands.
The level of responsiveness needed to leverage market opportunities is becoming directly proportional to an enterprise's capability to capture and use the most current, real-time data.
Enterprises are also looking at dynamic, instant access to cloud-based resources and services. The need for scalability from the cloud as such is only increasing.
A real-time cloud infrastructure coupled with serverless and edge computing provides immense scalability and thereby drives faster and smoother decision-making.
The Need for Instant Access
The Data as a Service Market is geared to is estimated at USD 20.74 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 51.60 billion by 2029. This model enables businesses to drive competitive advantage using data. This market is also growing as enterprises look at ways to manage an increasingly complex and heterogeneous data landscape.
The number of applications that use data is also increasing and extending beyond core business strategies. There is also a greater focus on real-time data analytics and intelligent analytics to power business strategies and decisions.
The success of these initiatives depends on the capabilities of the cloud infrastructure. Real-time cloud infrastructure is gradually becoming the backbone to support such capabilities by enabling enterprises to instantly access current and real-time data, increase efficiency, and reduce resource consumption.
Navigating Dynamic Workloads and Changes in Infrastructure Availability
Real-time cloud infrastructure is also catching attention as enterprises look for ways to manage dynamic workloads and changes in infrastructure availability. Combining high utilization in a shared environment with timing for low interference between users is also becoming important for enterprises.
In such an environment, the communication network and the compute nodes must be tightly integrated. Real-time cloud infrastructure ensures high availability and scalability to adapt network behavior and performance to the requirements of the systems.
To Sum it Up
The technical components that make up the real-time cloud include real-time hypervisors and real-time virtual networks and routers. Along with this, enterprises need to look at development toolchains, in the application execution environments.
Leveraging adaptive and data-driven operations technologies for edge and cloud continuum management becomes further essential to provide end-to-end latency guarantees.
Real-time cloud infrastructure can significantly impact industries like manufacturing, finance, etc. This technology will continue on its northward trajectory as AR/VR applications across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, gaming, etc. increase and the adoption of real-time capabilities, specifically streaming analytics, IoT, and interactive applications accelerate.
It is indeed an exciting time for the cloud as the technology evolves to address diverse business needs and help enterprises adopt and leverage technological advancements. In the coming year, enterprises can explore the potential of real-time cloud infrastructure to drive efficiency, security, and sustainability in an ever-expanding and rapidly-changing digital landscape.
