Much of the world is finally recovering from COVID-19. Businesses have adapted to shifts, such as spikes in online ordering and dips in the number of employees who prefer to work in offices. These shifts resulted in more companies adopting cloud services, which gave them access to vast computing, networking, and data storage resources and empowered them to quickly implement necessary infrastructural changes.   Here are some of the most important 2022 cloud tech predictions:

Cloud service providers (CSPs) may develop industry-specific specializations

Cloud services have been mostly generic, and differentiation among CSPs has mostly been a function of marketing spin rather than actual IT functionality. However, governments and industry moderators (such as the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council) are stepping up efforts to regulate data in industries like healthcare and banking. This is giving CSPs the opportunity to develop niches in those industries by producing cloud services that have industry-specific regulations compliance baked into them.
 
This means that if your business belongs in a highly regulated industry, you’ll no longer have to settle for basic cloud services. Rather, you can look for a CSP that specializes in your field. If, for instance, you’re a healthcare service provider, you can turn to a CSP that offers HIPAA-compliant cloud services.
 

More governments will exert greater control over cloud users and cloud providers

Cloud nationalism is the concept that a sovereign nation (or group of nations such as the European Union) must be able to exercise authority over data and the infrastructures in which it is stored. Cloud nationalism can be seen in two ways:
 
Governments bar and regulate tech and cloud providers for the sake of national security — and technopolitical influence
If a nation fears that a foreign cloud provider will spy on them, then that nation will ban that provider from its territories. Since the United States and Britain have and continue to utilize tech providers to commit espionage, they are banning Huawei from their 5G and cloud markets to prevent China from doing the same thing.
 
However, it may be argued that those Western nations are also trying to stop Huawei — and by extension, China — from extending its lead in those tech spaces. Dominance in IT means holding sway over global standards and being the world’s supplier of choice. Therefore, painting Huawei as untrustworthy due to it purportedly being a tool for espionage for an economic and political rival nation may just be an uncompetitive ad hominem attack. Or it may be a valid tactic that’s also geared to hamper China’s rising technopolitical power and economic growth.
 
Internally, a nation may also regulate its own tech companies for the sake of national security. While there are no prominent cloud-related examples to cite as of this writing, the scrutiny over the role Facebook played in the January 6 insurrection may inform future IT industry regulations soon.
 
Governments regulate cloud users and providers to protect their constituents
Governments are mandated to protect their citizens’ data privacy. Some nations require that all data pertaining to their citizens be stored in data centers within their own borders to simplify their exercise of sovereignty and authority over data. Furthermore, the EU applies its own laws and grants its citizens privileges such as the right to be forgotten. These and other legal developments impact how you expand your operations to other countries and influence your choice of CSPs to partner with.

More clouds will integrate AI Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Artificial intelligence has many use cases, ranging from business intelligence to predictive analytics to cybersecurity. Therefore, if your business is processing and storing large amounts of data in the cloud, then distilling insights (such as consumer trends) via AI SaaS apps is the next logical step.
 
Doing this in the cloud, instead of having to invest vast amounts of capital into an in-house IT infrastructure, makes perfect sense since AI processes are resource-intensive. Incidentally, the cloud is nothing if not a stack of IT resources waiting to be leveraged.
 
For instance, if you sell products online, you can use an AI-powered cloud to provide personalized shopping experiences for your customers. Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud Einstein can personalize what eCommerce websites display to each site visitor based on their searches, product views, and purchases made anywhere, be it online or in physical stores.
 
Rely on SimplyClouds to help you stay on top of cloud trends and leverage the cloud to the fullest. Send our cloud specialists a message today to learn more.

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