Cloud innovation is accelerating and changing the world. This move to the cloud is forcing organizations of all shapes and sizes to rethink how they’re running their networks. With the new cloud era becoming more prominent, Futuriom, a research and analysis community focused on next-generation cloud technologies, launched the first Futuriom 40 report last year to track the most promising companies providing innovative cloud infrastructure technology and the trends that are driving the cloud. For the second consecutive year, Itential has been named as one of the market leaders that is advancing innovation in the infrastructure market with our unique approach to integrated automation.
In this new report, Futuriom not only outlines the leading companies supporting the drive toward the cloud, but also provides a very interesting perspective into the landscape of cloud technology and how it has evolved since their inaugural report a year ago. Let’s look at a few of the highlights.
Technology Trends Driving Cloud Adoption
It’s important to understand the driving forces that are pushing companies toward cloud adoption. In this year’s research, Futuriom uncovered a few key macro trends focused on the technology adoption.
The macro underpinnings include growing demand for cloud technology driven by the migration toward hybrid work environment, the ongoing rollout of high bandwidth fiber and 5G services, and board-level initiatives for digital transformation projects. To sum it up simply – organizations want to increase bandwidth, compute, and access to cloud to enable valuable applications using transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence.
This means that there is a significant impact to how networks are managed with the growing adoption of cloud, which generates value by connecting more humans and machines.
3 Key Emerging Segments in Cloud Technology
Based on Futuriom’s research and analysis throughout the past year, three key segments emerged:
Distributed Cloud Infrastructure
Networking and connectivity platforms need to be engineered to connect cloud resources ranging from the edge to the public cloud. Previously this was viewed as two different areas – distributed networking and distributed edge. But now, these two are connected because they are converging and without one there cannot be another.
Unified Cloud Security
Cybersecurity risks and solutions are both multiplying by the day. A clear trend, especially at the level of cloud infrastructure, is to build more unified cloud cybersecurity solutions that can be better integrated with a variety of tools – including other cybersecurity platforms and data analysis tools.
Cloud Data Management
Data is at the heart of the cloud. It’s the essential element in running the enterprise, and its importance is growing along with its momentous volume. The resulting demand for tools that wrangle and make sense of corporate data has spawned an explosion of innovation and new companies that help improve the flow, management, and security of data in the cloud.
The Need for an Integrated Approach to Hybrid-Cloud Management
One thing is clear from Futuriom’s new report – organizations have A LOT to manage when it comes to infrastructure. Not only are they trying to stay on top of the ever-evolving cloud trends, but they’re also trying to manage their current physical infrastructure. There are many forms of traditional compute, storage, and networking resources that will need to be integrated into any cloud compute or networking plan.
Enterprises need a way to manage physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructure with one platform – a hybrid cloud network automation platform. By using APIs, networking standards, and software automation, an integrated platform can tie together any networking domain, whether it’s traditional infrastructure or SD-WAN branches. The Itential Automation Platform was built on this very foundation and provides organizations with a way to simplify network management by bridging the gap between hybrid infrastructure, ensures flexibility to be leveraged in any networking environment, and streamlines processes and resources across any domain in any environment.
To explore this research further, you can watch the on-demand webinar where the team at Futuriom discusses the trends from this year, with Itential’s CTO, Chris Wade, making a guest appearance. You can also download the complimentary full report from Futuriom to take a deeper dive into the key themes and drivers behind cloud technology trends as well as how Itential is positioned as one of the leading innovative companies in cloud and network automation.
Kristen H. Rachels
Chief Marketing Officer ‐ Itential
Kristen serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Itential, leading their go-to-market strategy and execution to accelerate the adoption and expansion of the company’s products and services.
