The Evolving Cloud Landscape: Predictions for 2025 and Beyond – A Shift Towards Hybrid by Design
The cloud computing landscape is maturing, and the narrative is shifting. For years, the focus was almost exclusively on moving to the cloud. Now, in late 2023 and looking ahead to 2025, we’re witnessing a more nuanced understanding of where workloads should reside – and a growing trend towards a strategically designed hybrid approach. This isn’t simply about accidental hybrid environments born from legacy systems; it’s about actively choosing the optimal location for applications based on performance, cost, governance, and increasingly, data sovereignty.
I recently participated in a discussion with industry peers – Dana, Ivan, Whit, and william McKnight – and the consensus was clear: the future isn’t solely in the public cloud. It’s a complex interplay between public,private,and on-premise infrastructure,orchestrated as a unified,efficient platform.
Beyond the Hype: Understanding the True Cloud Footprint
It’s easy to get caught up in the buzz around cloud services, but it’s crucial to remember that what we commonly refer to as “the cloud” currently represents only around 25% of the overall technology provision space. The remaining 75% still lives on-premise or within hosted private data centers.Ignoring this reality is a recipe for inefficiency and escalating costs. The goal isn’t to eliminate on-premise infrastructure entirely, but to integrate it seamlessly with cloud resources.
FinOps Drives Strategic Decisions – and Repatriation
cost management is, and will continue to be, a major catalyst for this shift. The rise of FinOps – the practice of bringing financial accountability to the variable spend of the cloud – has forced organizations to scrutinize their cloud spending and question whether every workload truly belongs in the public cloud.
We’re seeing a growing number of companies re-evaluate their cloud strategies, with some actively moving workloads back on-premise - a trend known as repatriation. At finopsx, the conversation centered around blended costs, acknowledging the need to consider the total cost of ownership across both on-premise and cloud environments.
This isn’t a rejection of the cloud, but a pragmatic response to economic realities. And cloud providers are taking notice.
The Provider Response: Competition and Adaptability
William McKnight predicts that cloud providers will respond to the repatriation trend by 2025,likely through more competitive pricing and technical advancements offering greater flexibility and security. While cloud adoption will continue, repatriation will likely slow down the overall pace of migration.
We’re already seeing this play out.Oracle, now considered a major player alongside AWS, Microsoft, and Google, is aggressively undercutting competitors with its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) pricing. However, as whit pointed out, there’s skepticism surrounding these tactics, with clients concerned about potential future licensing costs.
Interestingly, even historically “pure-play” cloud providers are acknowledging the need for hybrid solutions. AWS Outposts, for example, now integrates with local storage from NetApp, signaling a willingness to meet customers where they are.This trend towards interoperability is a positive sign.
Architecture First: Redefining “cloud”
I firmly believe that “cloud” should be viewed primarily as an architectural construct – a way to dynamically provision and elastically scale resources – rather than solely as a question of who the provider is. Hosting companies can ofen deliver comparable levels of resilience, and the focus should be on building an architecture that meets the specific needs of the application, regardless of where it resides.the Rise of Cloud-Native Management Tools
Supporting this hybrid reality requires a new generation of management tools. Ivan highlighted the success of cloud-native solutions in areas like Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Network Detection and Response (NDR). Companies like Cato Networks and Lumu Technologies are gaining traction because they eliminate the need for costly and complex physical infrastructure.
These cloud-native solutions offer greater pricing flexibility than traditional,hardware-tied offerings,allowing them to adapt to market conditions and drive adoption. We’re even seeing vendors explore value-based pricing models, aligning costs with the actual buisness value delivered to the customer. This represents a potentially exciting shift in how cloud services are consumed.
Looking Ahead: A Hybrid future
The cloud isn’t going away.In fact, it’s becoming more integral to the overall IT landscape. However, the future isn’t about a wholesale migration to the
