Cloud: The 2019 to 2021 Roadmap

In this article, I'm trying to give a shot on what could be the very next future of cloud computing.

The future of the cloud is a difficult and simple subject. Some points can be seen very easily, while others remain subject to a psychic exercise. In this article, I will try to summarize my views on this subject.

Emergence of A Fully Distributed Cloud

The dream of seeing the cloud completely descend to personal computers is perhaps a pious dream. Nevertheless, there are some trends emerging. First of all, IBM's acquisition of Red Hat is symptomatic of a cloud that wants to become hybrid. Microsoft with Azure had already advanced its pawns on this subject, but it is clear here that the challengers are trying to overtake AWS on subjects on which it is not found. We can see this strategy clearly with the lead that IBM has taken on blockchain-as-a-service compared to its competitors. Why try to attack the ogre head-on when you can attack him when he's not paying attention?

But this desire for a hybrid cloud could be just one step. The weakness of edge computing to date is absurd. We all have smartphones in our pockets whose power would have made very good computers a few years ago, and the latest iPad Pro is as powerful as a laptop. I admit that the Chromebook model is attractive, but the idea of a screen/keyboard/CPU as simple as possible has not become widespread. And even so, why wouldn't my Amazon Echo work on compute or distributed storage? Precisely, with the emergence of 5G and fiber, the scenario of generalized Edge computing is becoming more relevant day after day.

This vision must be complemented by a multi-cloud vision. Many companies use multiple cloud providers to create their own small silos in their area. Those who have known SOA know the music, it will be necessary to integrate all this, and therefore orchestrate multi-cloud. This may be where the iPaaS will be able to play its score.

Blockchain-as-a-Service

Those who know the beginnings of IoT platforms will be able to recognize the same pattern with the blockchain. And with as much as IBM has pushed and as much as AWS offers? An architecture diagram where we see all the AWS bricks likely to interface with a blockchain. We have understood that this is only one step. So I put down my glass of iced tea until AWS brings us its blockchain platform. What reinforces me in this idea is the explosion of the blockchain at the moment, with, for example, Walmart, who will use it to manage food traceability, but also the number of ICOs and startups around the blockchain that have been out of the wood for less than 6 months. In short, the blockchain is the new IoT!

Serverless vs. Microservices

The trend of the latest microservice stacks is to boast of launching very quickly and being very efficient. Which is to say, being ready for serverless, right? Why differentiate between these two concepts? In practice for me, the conceptual difference is ridiculous, the difference being made "in practice" with different possibilities regarding serverless versus microservices. And when I am told that serverless responds to events while microservices responds to requests, I answer that an event can initiate a request, and vice versa. In short, I am waiting for the fusion of the two worlds as soon as possible! And that the developer performs micro-services without knowing it, with serverless frameworks.

AI Cloud

One last thing. The AI on cloud platforms still deserves to be popularized, and to see its computing power increase, but also to see its prices decrease very quickly, given the number of projects that are launched every day on this subject! For sure, AI needs to become more popular to really explode.

And what about you? What major trends do you see coming?