A Look Back at the Cloud Computing Trends That Emerged During the Decade: Part 1
“Cloud computing technologies let us store, access and share all kinds of information over the Internet from anywhere, at any time.”
- Forbes Special Report on Cloud Computing from 2010
To say that we’ve made progress in cloud computing technology or that cloud computing is quite popular would be an understatement. While both of those statements were true back in 2010, in 2020, cloud computing hasn’t just evolved and become more popular, it has become a necessity for every enterprise that doesn’t want to be limited by borders.
Of course, it wasn’t always that way. On the way here, companies took missteps, analysts made incorrect predictions, and we all underestimated how big AWS was going to be.
As cloud computing enters a new decade, we at Oddup have decided to compile a list of the most prominent cloud computing trends that emerged this past decade and learn as much as we can for a new era.
Trend #1: Tech Giants Join The Party
Technically, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were the first to enter the arena of cloud market share. Cloud computing requires large capital investments and computing infrastructure spanning multiple continents — something that very few enterprises were capable of in the early 2010s.
The launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002 and later Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was monumental in bringing cloud computing to the level it is today — especially considering that the world was still grappling with the aftermath of the dot com bubble and questioning the value of e-commerce.
By 2010, however, Amazon was facing mounting competition from fellow tech giants, Google and Microsoft, each of whom had their own feature set and unique selling points. While Amazon had an early mover advantage, Google had its computing infrastructure (required for its search engine) that paved the way for Google App Engine. Microsoft, meanwhile, had a loyal user base that would move their data and computing needs to Microsoft Azure. Google later rebranded its cloud services under the flag of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and went on to launch Google Compute Engine (GCE).
The increased competition and cheaper servers meant that cloud computing was now more affordable than ever before, which brings us to the second trend that emerged during the decade.
Trend #2: Let There Be… SaaS
Though cloud computing began gaining ground around 2008, it wasn’t until 2010 when the technology really took off, thanks to one of the biggest trends of the decade, if not of the century –Software-as-a-Service or SaaS.
To put into perspective how fast Cloud Application Services (SaaS) grew in this decade, let’s compare two Gartner reports: One from 2017 and the other from 2019.
In its Worldwide Public Cloud Service Revenue Forecast for 2017, Gartner estimated that worldwide revenue for Cloud Application Services (SaaS) in 2018 would be over $55 billion. However, the actual revenue for 2018 ended up exceeding a whopping $88 billion.
Even Gartner’s best analyst teams did not expect SaaS to take off the way it did and underestimated its massive growth rate. This rise was possible largely because of the easily accessible and affordable cloud computing platforms that are each vying for a small bump in market share year-on-year.
Trend #3: Security Becomes a Non-Issue
One of the biggest issues enterprises had in the early stages of digital transformation was security, or lack thereof. Within just a few years, however, AWS gained a reputation for having a secure, drop-in replacement solution. The biggest show of confidence in cloud computing came in 2013 when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency closed a US$600 million deal with AWS to build a private cloud.
Trend #4: Enterprises Become Early Adopters
By the mid-2010s, cloud computing had established itself as an important and valuable technology that enterprises could leverage for a number of benefits including more versatile products, better customer service, and easier expansion. In other words, cloud computing went on to become quite trendy. Other players didn’t want to miss out, which meant hundreds of established companies launched their own cloud-based products.
Adobe launched Creative Cloud, Nvidia launched GeForce Now, AT&T launched its new Content Delivery Network (CDN), and IBM launched BlueMix (which later became IBM Cloud). In fact, IBM, Google, and Amazon have launched several cloud computing services during the last decade alone.
Takeaway: The Demand Exists, It Just Needs to Be Fulfilled
What used to be a space dominated by just three big companies is now rapidly growing with new cloud service providers entering the market thanks to fewer barriers to entry. This, in turn, means that cloud computing will become more accessible and affordable for the masses.
The growth statistics paint a clear picture here — the demand for cloud services is rising by the day. However, many cloud service providers are having a hard time capitalising on this demand due to the lack of quality data on startups and companies that are in the midst of their digital transformation strategies.
Oddup comes to the aid of the business development teams at cloud service providers by providing real-time startup activity and investment data. In addition to data monitoring and proprietary startup rating metrics such as the startup health and potential barometer metric, Oddup Score, and the Benchmark Valuation (BV ), which reflects the accurate valuation of a startup , Oddup also offers detailed scouting reports, which highlight potentially disruptive companies.
Empowered with Oddup’s expansive data and actionable insights, our subscribers are able to capitalise on emerging opportunities and stay one step ahead of the competition.
Take advantage of Oddup’s comprehensive data platform and suite of insights solutions by simply sharing your details here or reaching us at enterprise@oddup.com.
