More Buzzwords, But They All Point to Evolution

Regardless of the terminology (“cloud-first,” “cloud-smart,” etc.), Eran Gil, CEO of AllCloud, sees more organizations becoming cloud-native over the coming year.

“Organizations that initially migrated to the cloud using only select cloud-native services are quickly following up, and ultimately transforming or modernizing their organizations, to become fully cloud-native,” Gil tells Channel Futures. “The pace at which this transformation is taking place has sped up and it will continue to accelerate.” 

Clara Angotti, president of Next Pathway, predicts the same trend – albeit with a slightly different spin on the words.

“Companies will evolve from a ‘cloud-first’ strategy to a ‘cloud-only’ strategy, ensuring that operational efficiencies are realized along with better access to information and more meaningful insights to key data,” she says.

Ultimately, says Google Cloud’s Pip White, all this will culminate in a more “open” cloud. Organizations will want to avoid vendor lock-in and foster innovation, she says.

“There will be a greater desire by companies to not bring the problems of the on-prem world into the cloud and by not being ‘open,’ businesses will not want to repeat past mistakes,” says White, managing director U.K. and Ireland at Google Cloud.