The turbulence of recent years has seen drastic realignment across sectors, forcing the entire world to navigate these new waters and rethink business models, workflows and life as a whole. From automation to supply chains and virtual boardrooms, the newly emerging landscape is enabled by evolving telecommunication technologies and powered by the cloud. As migration to the cloud skyrockets and the increase in demand shows no sign of stopping, developing a long-term cloud strategy and continuous optimisation will be an essential element of "future-proofing" for businesses.
Migration to the cloud in its own right is nothing new, the pandemic simply accelerated the process as priorities drastically changed in a short period of time. This tide of change seems to be going nowhere, bringing more than a fair share of challenges for both business leaders and cloud providers. In order to stay competitive in the global marketplace and get the most out of cloud solutions, it is crucial to keep up with emerging technologies and trends.
#1: IPV6 on the rise - are you prepared?
IPV6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, designed to identify devices on the internet so they can be located. Every device connecting to the internet needs its own IP address in order to function well and enable communication - it’s much like a zip code for an address. The improved and more recent version of IPV4 has been around since 1998 but despite its enhanced security protocols and efficiency, adoption has been lagging behind.
The reason behind this is that IPv4, the previous version, has the capacity to support 4.3 billion devices with its 32-bit addressing scheme. For quite a while, everyone thought that this should be enough. However, the advent of smart devices and IoT all over the world has been a complete game changer and proved that this estimate was very much off the mark.
Following the announcement of RIPE that the last of the IPV4 addresses have been allocated, the adoption of IPV6 has started to steadily increase. The shortage has been known since 2012, but despite ample warning ahead of time, many have taken to the auction market, with pricing ranging from £10-£30 per address. This move turned what once was a free market to one worth hundreds of millions of pounds globally. Going into 2022, IVP6 adoptions are set to rise even more, with China already announcing their plans to run a single-stack IPv6 network by 2030. Carrier networks and ISPs have spearheaded the adoption of the new protocol globally, but enterprises will need to follow suit in order to stay ahead of the game.
#2: Moving towards a greener future
Climate change is, without a doubt, one of the most important policy issues in today’s political, economical and social spheres. It affects the way we operate in business, in our private lives, and as a society at large. Despite a record drop in global emissions in 2020 due to the pandemic, a recent study found that the switch to remote working and at-home entertainment still presents a significant environmental risk.
According to Accenture’s report on green cloud computing, ‘Migrations to the public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tons per year - which equates to taking 22 million cars off the road.’ While the public cloud is undoubtedly greener than any legacy systems, it’s not the best option for every business. By contrast, the advantages of private cloud are many but one has to be conscious of the environmental impact as well. The energy consumption of data centres in particular is the most significant blocker in that case, posing a real challenge for every government set on hitting their carbon neutrality goals.
In order to create lasting change and make the private cloud greener, we all need to broaden our perspectives on climate change and our relationship to the environment going forward. As more and more companies embark on their digital transformation journeys, business owners and industry leaders must work together to find long-term sustainable solutions to these challenges. When it comes to the cloud and the world’s accelerated digital transformation, looking at your own carbon footprint as well as your suppliers’ is the most pressing task. Partnering with a carbon-thoughtful provider, becoming a cloud native company, and continuous innovation can serve as actionable considerations for a greener future for all.
#3: Building IT resilience in the cloud
Cybersecurity and 24/7 availability are some of the challenges of doing business in the digital age. Whether granting access to information and applications for offices across the world or providing network support and security for employees and branches in remote locations, the expectations for IT teams will be stretched even tighter in 2022. Added to that, as the pandemic hit, cybercrime statistics skyrocketed - more than 80% of organisations experienced a successful attack in 2020/2021 in the UK alone. Furthermore, threats such as phishing, malware and ransomware attacks pose a threat to entire economies, governments, and businesses all over the world.
Prioritising active resilience as opposed to passive problem solving is a company culture need that will push businesses in the months to come. Building cyber resilience starts simple - focusing on vulnerabilities, loopholes, mitigating threats and educating employees to circumvent user error. The crucial part of this is to do these tasks continuously, instead of once or a few times a year. Resilience is built on repetition. Focusing on building resilience means being proactive instead of reactive which in turn lessens the strain on the IT department in the long run, and lessens the chances of disruption to services in case of a cyber attack.
Working with your ISP and cloud service providers is instrumental in building a solid foundation that supports and protects these priorities without sacrificing efficiency which may, in turn, mean an increased interest in private cloud solutions.
Digital transformation is permeating every aspect of our lives and will be a determining factor for the years to come. As more and more businesses make the decision to migrate to the cloud, or become cloud native, new challenges and opportunities are appearing on the horizon for all. It is up to industry leaders and business owners to keep innovating in order to capitalise on those opportunities while navigating this new landscape.
