Data Backup Digest

We’re nearing the end of 2017, but many businesses will have already looked ahead into the forthcoming year to consider the storage challenges that await them. With the cloud showing no signs of slowing down, and an increasing number of providers making strong pushes into the enterprise market, let’s look at the cloud storage trends that we can expect in 2018.

First, security is going to remain a key element. This year has seen a high proportion of cyberattacks, many making headline news. Things like the WannaCry ransomware attack and the Equifax data breach make it clear that our data isn’t ever truly protected. These attacks are not only damaging internally as businesses spend money to recover data, it’s also bad for the public image.

These attacks will be unlikely to die down next year and they’ll be targeted at cloud infrastructures. As these malicious attacks grow in sophistication, learning how to overcome the security in place, businesses will need to counteract. Investing in tools like security information and event management or systems to detect malware will be paramount to protecting data. We might also see more businesses cropping up the sole purpose of offering security services to the cloud.

Second, the amount of data being stored globally is growing at a massive rate. Storing data has always been a part of business, but now more IT groups are realising the value of their data. As such, more data centres ae being created to cope with this demand. A Cisco survey estimates that global storage capacity would be 600EB by year end, with that number set to nearly double by next year.

Businesses will be taking advantage of more storage space being available by keeping more of their own data. As such, with these large data sets, they’ll be able to analyse everything to assess customer behaviour and financial impact. And we’ll probably see more tailored data plans come from the back of this, which should make it cheaper for with capacity demands.

Third, internet quality is growing, with consumers now expecting more from their internet speeds. Qualcomm Snapdragon has been leading the faster network speeds and the number of groups working on this will rise in 2018, and we’ll likely see the introduction of 5G not long after.

The enhanced network quality will mean that businesses will expect faster and responsive applications. Many use software as a service platforms and these will need to tweak to cope with this expected performance. Global businesses will also expect to rely more on cloud storage to send data more effectively in real-time.

SaaS is predicted to take 60% of all cloud-based traffic next year, according to a Cisco survey, which is a 12% increase on 2017. Businesses should take this time to assess how they have the cloud integrated into their production; it continues to get cheaper, more efficient, and more secure, making it a much more viable storage option than it was even five years ago. Who knows where we’ll be in another five.