Claudio Saes, a partner and telecom practice leader at Nokia Bell Labs Consulting, discusses the current state of cloud computing and its implications for the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. He highlights the shift towards public cloud-based solutions, which offer superior databases, development platforms, software, and generative AI technologies. Saes emphasizes that being “out-of-the-cloud” puts technology at a disadvantage compared to cloud-native applications, which are designed for scalability, flexibility, and resilience.
The movement towards cloud-native applications is driven by the unique characteristics of cloud computing architecture, including microservices, containerization, API-based communication, and orchestration. While public cloud providers offer impressive features, migrating applications between platforms can be challenging and costly. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies add complexity and require replication of tools, skills, and organization across different clouds. Traditional enterprises may struggle to optimize costs and manage the intricacies of multi-cloud environments.
AI software that is I/O intensive and generative AI models are becoming increasingly prevalent, leading to higher costs in public cloud computing. Despite falling costs of public cloud providers, enterprise costs are on the rise, prompting a trend towards repatriation of services to more cost-effective locations. Saes suggests that commoditization of essential cloud services like computing, memory, and storage is imminent, leading to the development of superclouds or metaclouds that offer cross-cloud capabilities.
Saes envisions a future where software applications can autonomously select the best cloud configuration based on cost and performance efficiency. This shift towards autonomous services will require specialized skills and a focus on proactive security measures and observability. Cloud computing is expected to become more geographically distributed, with edge clouds expanding into midsize metropolitan centers. The technological advancements in cloud computing are poised to redefine the ICT sector and drive continuous innovation, cost-effectiveness, and operational efficiency in the future.
