As we step into 2024, let's explore some key trends that are shaping the cloud engineering landscape.
1. GenAI to drive application modernization to enhance business agility
Apart from accelerating business operations, Generative AI (GenAI) serves as a powerful tool to accelerate application modernization.
It helps reverse-engineer code, extract business rules and discover domain patterns. It automates the generation of cloud-native code, UI code from design images and infrastructure as code (IaC).
This ensure that applications are tailored for modern cloud environments, reducing development time and ensuring they run smoothly in cloud.
2. FinOps adoption to increase to optimize costs
With cloud utilization witnessing a huge upsurge and increasing complexities of managing cloud operations, cloud cost optimization has become an imperative. Businesses are embracing FinOps to align their cloud spending with broader organizational objectives and to optimize costs intelligently. By implementing FinOps practices, organizations can make informed decisions that impact their bottom line positively.
3. Embedding sustainability considerations in cloud design and operations
Migrating to cloud itself lends well for greener outcomes, especially if it is strategically designed for sustainable outcomes. Embedding sustainability considerations right from the design, architecture and development stages to deployment and operations can lead to more energy- and carbon-efficient outcomes.
Opting for serverless architectures, containerization of applications and low-code and no-code development along with code reuse, CI/CD integration and automation that leverage AI/ML-based tools to optimize utilization in real time can all aid in driving sustainable outcomes. This year we may see greater adoption of some of these by enterprises to drive their sustainability goals.
4. Cloud-to-cloud migration to enhance performance, reduce costs
Organizations that have been on cloud for a while are now considering cloud-to-cloud migration. This allows companies to strategically pick and choose the services that align with their objectives. The strategic move can optimize performance, reduce costs, enhance scalability and flexibility to ensure that the business operates in the most conducive digital environment.
5. Service mesh: Ensuring seamless business operations in multi-cloud environment
Service mesh is a critical enabler for businesses operating in a multi-cloud environment. It ensures that diverse cloud services collaborate seamlessly, contributing to a cohesive and resilient business architecture. It ensures operational efficiency for a business by enhancing reliability and reducing downtime, which lead to improved customer satisfaction.
Application modernization with GenAI, FinOps, sustainable cloud, cloud-to-cloud migration and service mesh are all integral components of a business's cloud journey, ensuring that technology aligns seamlessly with broader organizational objectives.
In 2024, businesses are likely to scale the use of these strategic levers to stay competitive, agile and cost-effective.
Grateful for contributions from our experts – Atul Jain, Associate Vice President, Engineering and R&D Services, HCLTech and Ankur Agarwal, Associate General Manager, Engineering and R&D Services, HCLTech.
