Cloud Business to grow significantly:

Analysts predict the global cloud computing market to grow significantly with rapid increases in processing power making cloud projects even cheaper. Gartner predicts that, the fastest growing sector of the market is going to be cloud service providers, and the larger market share will be taken over by Hybrid model segment compared to Public and Private Segments. With the transition to very low-cost datacenters in few years, even the smaller companies start providing the cloud services which are currently provided by big players like Facebook, Amazon. There will be fierce competition between the few large providers to experiment with radical technologies to increase market share and enhance features. The cloud infrastructure and software of a datacenter will automatically mold itself around the task required, rather than the other way around. In this way, the ability of Cloud services to deliver expensive applications at affordable will continue to accelerate.

Super-Fast cloud and increased scalability:

Joseph Reger, chief technology officer of Fujitsu Technology Solutions, predicts that in few years, ^[1]we can expect communications in the datacenter to be “running at a speed in the low hundreds of gigabits per second.” With the competition building to have super-fast interconnect in datacenters, this will let information be passed around datacenters at a greater rate than before, letting companies create larger applications ^[1]potentially allowing developers to build more intelligent, automated and complex programs taking advantage of scalability.

^[2]Since applications will only get larger, the emphasis will be on modular software. Modular softwares are large applications with components that can be modified without shutting down the entire program. This will require a new approach to technology by CIOs and their department. Along with the modular approach, cloud applications will require a new programming mindset, especially as they interact with multiple clouds. This is also referred to as federated services where applications are not only going to be based in one cloud but will hook into other clouds and various on-premise applications as well.

Reger also says that in automating basic tasks, such as patching and updating, growing and shrinking cloud space etc., a datacenter will become more like a biological system, in the sense that changes and corrections are automatic.

Local computing to decline:

Many more programs already on the cloud today, In future, ^[3] it would not be surprising to have all our programs installed on the cloud instead of our hard drives. You don’t have to worry about software upgrades, bug fixes. Going forward, you could see operating systems on the cloud as well. In this way, all our data is stored in the cloud accessible across the globe and don’t need a local storage system.

^[3]You could buy processing power over the Internet without having to upgrade your home computer. Also, you could rent more processing power in the short run for an upcoming project. After the project is done, you could scale back and reduce the processing power. Similarly, you could increase or decrease the memory at will.

^[4]Google's version of cloud computing has the appeal of simplicity, in spite of Current Challenges. By moving applications and data to the Internet, Google will be in the race to reduce the need for local computers with native processing power.

Advanced security to increase:

Iris Scan will increasingly be used as powerful encryption via secure authentication to access the internet and your cloud. As per Gartner “Through 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault”. As per their analysis, ^[5]recent history has shown that virtually all public cloud services are highly resistant to attack and, in the majority of circumstances, represent a more secure starting point than traditional in-house implementations. Security incidents occurred largely because customers failed to incorporate required policies and standards on the implementations, compared to the percentage of incidents because of cloud service provider’s fault.

Though the lack of security perception does not go away forever, customers will favor towards adopting a mixed model having both public and private cloud, and on-premise to secure their sensitive data.

Artificial intelligence vs. Human Ability:

As per Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering, the human brain will soon merge with cloud ^[6]computer networks to form a hybrid artificial intelligence. The Neocortex of the human brain contains 300 million pattern processors that are responsible for human thought. ^[6]By linking our brains to cloud computers, humans could expand the limits of our own computing ability and eventually, upload our own brains to the cloud. Conceivably, if these pattern processors are artificially replicated, artificial intelligence could eventually surpass human ability.

^[3]With exponential processing power, faster hardware, super-speed Internet, and infinite cloud storage, there will be virtual reality instead of just browsing the Internet. You could first go and walk around in your local store ‘virtually’ before going there ‘physically’. You could see and feel the items before even setting foot in the store. Eventually visiting the Physical store will decline and ultimately all purchases happens on the virtual cloud. We can expect things like Virtualization tools, Dynamic BPO, etc. to be fully available on the cloud.

In a Nutshell:

“^[1]Cloud computing is the final means by which computing becomes invisible” — John Manley says from HP considering the fact that Companies are moving to the cloud in the fast pace.

^[2]CIOs can expect to see more resources going towards cloud development since 85 percent of new software is being built with the cloud in mind. Enterprises can expect to see an increase in third-party, enterprise and commercial developers and contributors to cloud application ecosystems, marketplaces, and API exchanges.

Cloud computing will take center stage in only a few years, where it will be possible with accelerating capabilities of technology to provide mass collaboration around huge data sets and computationally intensive problem-solving. All companies will opt for the cloud usage because of its simplicity and cost effectiveness and we will rely on cloud computing completely.

^[3]We will not be limited by processing power, memory, or even storage. Scalability, sustainability, security, and reliability of technology will ensure that the cloud is widely used and adopted across the world. The Internet will finally be called ‘The Cloud.’

References:

^{<div id="ref1">[1]</div>}http://softworx.co.za/a-cloudy-forecast-what-cloud-computing-will-look-like-by-2020/

^[2]http://tech.co/will-cloud-computing-2020-2014-10

^[3]https://digitaldimensionoftechnology.com/2012/03/10/cloud-computing-in-2030/

^[4]https://www.technologyreview.com/s/409131/googles-cloud-looms-large/

^[5]http://www.slideshare.net/timoelliott/ukisug15-big-trends-in-big-data-and-analytics

^[6]http://www.kurzweilai.net/cbc-artificial-intelligence-human-brain-to-merge-in-2030s-says-futurist-kurzweil