It's too soon to assess the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. But one area in which its influence has been felt is cloud technology.

The advent of working from home during lockdowns meant that IT had to adapt. And a big part of its strategy was to accelerate a shift to cloud services.

Though far from universally welcomed, many enterprises embraced the cloud as good for business. The headlines were – and continue to be – that it was cost-effective, good for remote collaboration and useful as a way of centralising workflows.

Cloud storage boomed. After all, if your team is scattered across postal districts – and even countries – then it's unsustainable for information to stay tethered to one location. A scattered workforce was the new normal that IT had to adapt to.

Near the start of the pandemic, technology research firm Gartner reported that 74% of CFOs saw working from home as good for business and wanted to make it stick – and another survey revealed that 87% of decision-makers reported that their cloud migration plans were sped up by the pandemic.

Of course, it's not all rosy – just ask the commercial realtors dealing with climbing vacancy rates. And while the business case is easier to argue than ever, the so-called "threat landscape" presents new challenges. As cloud adoption increases, cybersecurity needs to bring its A-game.

Nevertheless, the advantages of cloud adoption are on their way to becoming well-established. Information is centralised and accessible from anywhere. It reduces the amount of money spent on installing, configuring and maintaining hardware. And cloud technologies are built for high uptime. In the event of a crash, failover systems ensure a minimum of disruption to operations.

In this article, we zoom in on some of the areas where cloud adoption has been accelerated by the pandemic.

SD-WAN

SD-WAN may sound like a Star Wars character, but it's actually a type of technology that optimises wide-area networks (WANs). It's "software-defined" and cloud-based – so adopters can save on hardware, just as with cloud storage.

It's been knocking around for a while now, but adoption spiked dramatically during the pandemic as networks became more complicated. Reliable, high-quality internet was essential with the majority of people working from home.

In 2022, 47% of respondents to a survey had installed SD-WAN – and 86% were in the process of adopting it. These days, it's increasingly integrated with SASE architectures – basically a bundle of security and networking features designed for complex networks.

So it's not just the shape of the average employee's day that's changed – it's the nature of networks themselves and the tech needed to optimise their performance.

VoIPs

During the lockdown era, people working from home needed to stay in touch – and VoIPs cut the costs.

VoIPs are internet-based telephone services, sometimes known as internet telephony. Household names include Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Google Hangouts. The big sell is that they're more affordable than landlines.

The VoIP market is blowing up. Its market share is forecast to hit $165.3 billion by 2028. Alongside cloud storage, it's changed the face of business as we know it.

Along with media platforms like Netflix, it's also brought the cloud into our daily lives. Every time you make a WhatsApp call or stream the latest box set, you're using cloud technology.

Online learning

With schools closed across the world, online learning became critical. Many institutions began conducting classes on Zoom and Google Meet – and resources increasingly became available online.

At the same time, online learning solutions like Coursera proliferated. They provided free online resources for people to follow at home.

While there has been a widespread return to the classroom, the demands of online learning contributed to an uptake in cloud technologies which shows no sign of slowing down.

The situation is the same with workplace training. It used to be the case that you'd gather the team together in one location. This hasn't gone away – but you're more and more likely to attend training on a platform like Zoom.

Some companies are even embracing the world of extended reality to provide immersive, lifelike training that simulates dangerous situations.

Of course, distance learning isn't new. But the opportunities for live-streaming and recording lectures and accessing learning materials from anywhere in the world certainly are.

The changing role of IT

IT was never simply a case of telling people to turn it off and turn it on again. But since the pandemic, its role as decision-maker has increased hugely.

If all of a company's workflows are going to be migrated to the cloud, it stands to reason that the IT department will be a critical part of the process. It's no longer just about tech – the role of IT now covers strategic planning and leadership.

On top of this, managed migration services are on the up. Cloud migration can be executed in-house – but it's a complex business that diverts time and resources away from IT and can lead to disruption.

What does the future hold for the cloud?

The future has a way of not looking quite as you imagined – but we can make some cautious predictions about how cloud technologies will develop in the near future.

First, there'll be an increase in cybersecurity spending and big investment in AI and predictive technology as a way of detecting threats.

Second, there'll be an increase in multi-cloud solutions – and, as a result, a rise in containerised applications.

There's also likely to be a spike in low-code and no-code app-building platforms. These allow non-specialists to build websites and apps.

Finally, there's a new frontier for gaming – the advent of cloud-native game development. This is something that both Xbox and Ubisoft are focusing on.

Do you need help navigating the intricacies of the cloud? As a trusted VMware consultancy, Ascend Cloud Solutions helps businesses of all sizes maximise returns on their cloud investments. Speak to a cloud expert today – we're ready to accelerate your ambition.