intelligent

WE EXPECT TO SEE MORE

INTEGRATION OF AI / MLOPS INTO

LARGE-SCALE DATA STORAGE OFFERINGS TO ADDRESS THE

SKILLS SHORTAGE AND HELP

ADMINISTRATORS

OFFLOAD AND AUTOMATE PROCESSES .

Betsy Doughty , VP Corporate Marketing , Spectra Logic data in recent years and we have every reason to believe that tendency will grow .”

Data sovereignty

Another hot topic throughout 2021 was data sovereignty and this trend is unlikely to slow down in 2022 . “ Dependence on technology providers and cloud services based outside of their geographies is an increasing concern for global enterprises ,” said Scality ’ s Speciale . “ Companies are struggling to keep track of the location of their data and meet compliance with local regulations . This will usher in an industry of local and regional service providers offering sovereign cloud services to captive markets by ensuring the data stays within specified borders .”

Keepit ’ s Schouboe agreed : “ As more local and global regulations are put in place to protect data and privacy , companies are under pressure to protect and document the state of their infrastructure . The ability to encrypt , protect and restore data is critical for organisations that strive to be compliant . And since SaaS vendors do not automatically backup data for longer periods of time and do not have noteworthy built-in security measures in place to protect the data , it is paramount for IT teams to proactively seek out , assess and implement third-party protective measures , including new technologies like Blockchain for data immutability .”

Artificial Intelligence

IDC forecasts global spending on Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) systems will increase from US $ 85.3 billion in 2021 to more than US $ 204 billion in 2025 . So what can we expect from this fast-growing and transformative technology in 2022 ?

For Speciale , it is all in the bigger picture : “ We expect to see more integration of AI / MLOps into large-scale data storage offerings to address the skills shortage and help administrators offload and automate processes .”

Steven Groenke , CEO at Storbyte , sees 2022 as a crucial year for AI , predicting it to become “ the most disruptive , yet transformative technology ever developed .” He continued : “ AI will grow , but rising energy futures will put pressure on data centres to bring down electricity costs .”

Cloud

According to Gartner , cloud computing will be the centrepiece of new digital experiences : the global cloud revenue will reach a total US $ 474 billion in 2022 , up from US $ 408 billion in 2021 . Keepit ’ s Schouboe explored the cloud ’ s advantages and disadvantages : “ While the cloud is great for scalability and flexibility , it also poses challenges for security : the ability to backup and restore the infrastructure is a highvalue safeguard against human error and other disasters that might befall an organisation in the course of their cloud journey .”

Scality ’ s Speciale believes on-premises data centres are here to stay : “ Even as public cloud investment continues , enterprises will maintain their corporate on-premises data centre infrastructures for reasons of control , performance and cost-efficiency . This will lead to a new level of sophisticated IT management capabilities to optimise multi data centre , multi-cloud application and data management solutions .”

In addition , “ The adoption of the Network-as-a-Service will hit the market ,” according to Storbyte ’ s Groenke . This cloud model allows users to operate the