The future of cloud migration: how will we use the cloud in 2040?
Cloud technologies have evolved dramatically over the last 20 years. But what will they look like in 2040? Check out our predictions.
It's not easy making predictions about the future of tech.
Not all of them are as clangingly wrong as Robert Metcalfe's 1995 prognosis that "the internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse".
In fairness to Metcalfe, he publicly ate his words by blending up a print-out of his column and drinking it at the 1999 International World Wide Web Conference.
Perhaps in 2040, we'll be passing round shots made from a print-out of this very blog post – assuming that printers still exist.
Nevertheless, it's worth making predictions for two reasons. One, it's fun. Even Nostradamus must have had a wry chuckle as he predicted the calamitous centuries to come.
And two, it's something that developers and investors do all the time.
If cloud architects and engineers believed that cloud technologies were a passing fancy, they'd be signing up to the job centre. And if investors thought the same, they'd be buying stocks and shares in something else – Barbie dolls, perhaps.
The predictions we make here are based on the assumption that the astonishing growth we've seen over the last few decades will continue to grow exponentially.
It's not a ludicrous assumption. Moore's Law – the principle, based on the development of electronics, that complexity grows exponentially – still holds, so far as we know. You only have to look at the advances made by AI in the early 2020s to see this.
So what will the cloud look like in 2040? Let's rub the dust from our crystal ball and take a look...
1. The Metaverse goes big
Some people will tell you that the Metaverse is already here. Phenomena like
Fortnite fit the bill – large, multi-player online spaces inhabited by digital avatars.
But as the word "Metaverse" suggests, the concept goes far beyond discrete online spaces. It's a vision of interlocking virtual worlds that can be entered and exited at the touch of a button.
We predict that by 2040, the Metaverse will be part of the daily fabric of our lives. Need a change of clothes? You'll be able to do so with a single voice command – "I need a denim overshirt that matches these maroon chinos", say, or "Make me look like Kate Winslet".
Appointments and meetings of all kinds will take place in holographic offices – from business meetings to doctors' checkups.
And this virtual universe will be portable. You might be sitting next to someone on the bus who's immersed in a digital world – chatting to their lifelike virtual assistant, perhaps.
Seem far-fetched? Wind back to the turn of the new millennium. Would you have guessed that you'd be video-calling a friend or watching the new season of
Celebrity Storage Hunters on your phone?
2. Cyber security strengthened by AI
Despite what you may have heard, the cloud is secure. But as with real-life security, you can never be
too
secure. That's because new threats are appearing all the time.
You know those gangster movies that portray games of cat-and-mouse between crims and law enforcers? Looks exhausting, doesn't it? That's pretty much what's happening in the world of cybercrime.
Every time a cyber lock is fitted, a hacker figures out how to pick it. That means cyber security is an industry that only ever sleeps with one eye open.
We already use AI and machine learning to predict and ward off threats. But as AI continues to develop, this will only become more sophisticated.
The big sell of AI is that it's smarter than us. We hate to say it, but your online chess game is smarter than you. It's letting you win. And machines are often better at containing threats than we are.
AI has the potential to see all the possible vulnerabilities to a cloud-based app or workflow – like Deep Blue anticipating all of Kasparov's possible moves.
As more and more businesses become cloud-first and more and more software becomes cloud-native, this is welcome news. We want to live in a world where all the benefits of the cloud can be enjoyed without any sleep lost to concerns about security.
3. The Internet of Things
Do you control your TV with an app on your mobile phone? Or ask Alexa for traffic updates? Or let your smartwatch tell you when it's time to go for a walk?
If any of these apply, then you're participating in the Internet of Things – an ever-expanding network of devices fitted with internet connectivity.
Think of a "smart home". Everything from the thermostat to the smoothie maker can be activated by voice control. Your Hoover follows a route that's stored in the cloud. You watch a video feed of your porch while on holiday in Cancun.
Go up a level and you've got smart cities. Barcelona set the trend, installing extensive networks of sensors that fed data to the government about all sorts of citywide issues – from transport to energy usage, from noise levels to water demand.
Could 2040 be the era of the smart world? A world in which every object we interact with is collecting and transmitting data?
Chances are that it won't be evenly distributed. There's a "digital divide" between the global north and global south which will take time to be bridged, if it's bridged at all.
It's a question of investment. Many developing countries lack the digital infrastructure required to enjoy the benefits of cloud tech. But things are, slowly, changing.
Conclusion
These are prophecies, not promises. But we believe that by 2040 the Internet of Things, the Metaverse, and AI-enhanced cyber security will have transformed the way we live our lives – just as cloud migration has transformed the way we do business.
Ascend is a
cloud solutions provider that specialises in VMware cloud migration and consultancy. For more industry tips and analysis,
follow our blog.
