Over the past two years, cloud computing exploded as many businesses adapted to Covid-19. 67% of enterprise infrastructure is now cloud-based, thanks to cloud computing’s ability to reduce expenses from data storage and computing hardware, among other benefits. According to Statista, global annual spend on cloud IT infrastructures reached $72 billion last year.

Virtually every digital service relies on cloud computing, including video streaming, social media, and IoT infrastructure. Here are some of the trends in integrated cloud computing that you should know about:

Companies planning their resource allocation will benefit from the continuous evolution of artificial intelligence. Googles CEO, Sundar Pichai, said: "AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire."

Everything from Instagram filters to search engine results live in the cloud. The technology that brings this information from data centers to our phones and computers is built on machine learning. Cloud data centers give us access to the bandwidth and processing power needed to make AI and machine learning available to anyone. Businesses who capitalize on this infrastructure to bring innovative algorithms that train more AIs will be the ones delivering new, exceedingly valuable services to users.

Businesses are increasingly adopting hybrid cloud environments because they don't want to depend on a single cloud provider, which helps them allocate cloud resources depending on their business needs and projects. Some quick stats on hybrid cloud environments:

For regulatory and security reasons, companies sometimes need private clouds (where they have their own cloud and data never leaves their premises). The biggest cloud providers such as Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft have rolled out hybrid models that give companies access to private and public cloud solutions. This enables companies to keep sensitive information on private servers while simultaneously providing customers, for example, dashboards or apps that allow them to access data on a public server. The backend cloud stack can remain invisible to users while a company expands into multi-cloud environments, streamlining and optimizing the user experience.

According to the Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report, organizations are struggling to control their cloud spend, with 13% of respondents indicating that their public cloud spend was over budget and 29% expecting their cloud spend to increase in the next twelve months. Respondents also estimated that their organizations waste 32% of cloud spend, up from 30% last year. With stats like these, it’s easy to see why FinOps, forecasting, and cost optimization are becoming increasingly crucial in cloud computing.

In 2021, the global cloud gaming market was valued at $1.57 billion. Statista predicts that this will rise to $6.5 billion in 2024 as businesses make gaming more accessible on mobile devices. New super-fast networks like 5G and Wi-Fi 6E mean that people can stream more, newer types of data. Cloud gaming platforms like Google Stadia, GeForce NOW, and Amazon Luna are being marketed as the next stage of video gaming as it overcomes the issue of waiting for games to download, the games taking up storage space on devices, and buying expensive gaming consoles.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 65% of adults in the US play video games. Just like video streaming has become the new normal, cloud gaming could be how people play games in the future. Technology moves quickly, and there’s no market or company that can bargain on staying at the top of their industry just because that’s where they were last year. In a world where a video gamer can make as much as a professional athlete, it’s worth looking into how your business can capitalize on cloud gaming, whether it’s sponsoring an esports tournament, partnering with a company that can connect you to this industry, or building your own cloud game.

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