Pure Storage released its technological predictions for 2022, suggesting that cloud computing and the rise of containerization will be high on regional CIOs‘ priority lists.
“The past two years have been about survival and tentative exploration,” said Patrick Smith, CTO EMEA, Pure Storage.
He added, “The need to accommodate remote work drove regional businesses to the cloud in unheard-of volumes. But the requirement for business continuity was soon followed by the evaluation of other technologies that would allow greater innovation both during the crisis and as/when it passes. Now that regional enterprises realize that operations are still ongoing, we expect to see innovation resume with greater confidence than ever, and it is within the context of that tentative optimism that we make our 2022 predictions.”
While cloud computing has proven to be an efficient springboard for innovation, a schism between realists and idealists will emerge in businesses.
“Amid the regional economic recovery, the attraction of the cloud is clear — it is a great place to stage proofs of concept safely and cheaply and become an early adopter,” Smith said.
He added, “But it is also a source of friction within organizations as the keen adopters and the cloud realists butt heads.”
As the CIO and CEO scramble to shift everything to the cloud in order to avoid being left behind, tensions will rise throughout 2022. Those who have a more balanced perspective of the cloud will clash with the CIO and CEO’s “move everything to the cloud” approach. If they do not comply to the cloud enthusiasts’ way of thinking, cloud realists, who tend to be lower down the food chain, risk being labelled non-believers and shunned.
Despite the parallel surge in popularity of low-code and no-code development, the popularity of Kubernetes and containers will continue to rise heading into 2022 as “the driving force” behind the sweeping changes seen in the way enterprises construct and execute applications.
Speaking on the value of Kubernetes and containers, Smith said, “Organizations expect the impossible from their data — they want faster insights on bigger datasets for a lower cost. The temptation is to think that no-code cloud-based solutions can provide the answers, but this underestimates Kubernetes and container technology.”
In support of this, 2022 will see an increase in the number of start-ups in the K8s ecosystem, with rising firms focusing on security and stack observability in particular. The persistent skills gap across the area, however, will continue to be a key hurdle for enterprises eager to embrace Kubernetes.
“If you’re a CIO and you can’t answer the question: ‘When are we going to the cloud?’, the likelihood is that you’ll be fired,” Smith warned the region’s technology leaders. “The scale of adoption of cloud technology has been astronomical over the past few years but will increasingly focus on exploiting the benefits of adopting containers in 2022.”
Because of the widespread reallocation of IT budgets from system maintenance — which is now largely handled, at least in part, by cloud service providers — to innovation, regional CIOs will need to develop roadmaps for bringing containers and the cloud together in 2022 to promote agility and scalability.
But Smith has a final warning for those CIOs: “They need to remember that fast adoption isn’t everything; the foundations need to be solid. Plans need to be forward-looking and build in flexibility because change in this space is guaranteed — be it cloud provider or K8s distribution or both. Modern applications run on modern data services where K8s is the foundation; enterprises want to win with data and the CIO holds the key to this victory.”
