Although for most people the cloud is far from a fresh new idea, its true potential is only now beginning to be realized. Here are some examples of how the cloud will change our lives over the next decade and in the future.

Managing Data

The cloud enables society to contend with the unavoidable growing volumes of data, large amounts of data presents itself as a challenge to store on fixed servers here in the physical world. Physically storing this information makes processing, transporting information, analysing and using this data in an efficient and useful way to benefit businesses near impossible.
Cloud computing solutions provide an underpinning support to identify and resolve the challenges that comes with sharing computer resources such as networking, storage, data and analytical software. Enabling businesses to tackle and utilise large amounts of data which in turn allows them to achieve impressive data advancements.

Constructing a Digital-First Infrastructure

Cloud will present the world with the digital infrastructure for the future which promises innovations such as driverless cars, drone taxis, trains and tubes, farms and power plants – all will be safer, secure and effectively managed, with credit due to the cloud’s capability to store and analyse data.
The cloud will also be transformational for organisations, especially small and medium sized businesses as artificial intelligence, data analytics and other capabilities become accessible as services. Each and every industry has varying needs, as we speak there are a team of communication experts working on what is known as the ‘Industry Cloud’ this is where there are thousands of separate clouds, all of which will work in harmony across a digital community of varying industry requirements.

Examples are:–

A commercial aviation cloud to assist airlines and airports around the world to manage ground activity such as refuelling aircrafts, maintenance, baggage handling, cabin cleaning and restocking, thereby maximising efficiency and assisting flights to take off on time.
A utility service cloud will repair faults in the power grid accordingly to guarantee that homes and businesses have a constant and uninterrupted power supply.
A banking cloud will allow financial institutions to study hundreds and thousands of transactions per second to intercept and prevent fraud.

Artificial Intelligence

The cloud acts as a harness for impending technologies such as the next generation of artificial intelligence and helps them to harmonise with new platforms such as mobile. In 2011 the sales of smartphones took over the sales of PCs and mobile developed into the world’s leading computing platform. Artificial Intelligence has already began to make its presence into mobile phones.
Mobile phones take in an enormous amount of unstructured data like text messages, photos and emails. Most smartphones don’t have the ability or the power to process this data and analyse it therefore the data is sent to the cloud via the mobile which in turn slows down Artificial intelligence and its response time.
The solution to this is to split this job between the phone itself and the cloud. The operation where artificial intelligence learns and trains happens in the cloud where there are copious amounts of processing power present and therefore artificial intelligence can learn rapidly. Artificial intelligence can then take what it has learnt, interpret that information and apply it to real life scenarios, this happens on the mobile device.
Smartphones will interpret information continuously, this intelligence is always switched on and enables mobile devices to react rapidly to voice commands, catalogue photographs according to time, place & content and set cameras up perfectly for various subjects under varying shot conditions.
This interpretation of data needs to process information in real time all of the time which in turn means that even the most super advanced smartphones of the future will be unable to meet the computing requirements dictated by artificial intelligence. They will have to rely on the powerful processing power of the cloud to do that.

Autonomous Vehicles

The futuristic vision of driverless cars coasting up and down roads and motorways is still a way off, but soon will become a reality thanks to the power of the cloud.
Similar to smartphones, vehicles come equipped with cameras and sensors that generate an abundance of data. A high percentage of this data needs to be processed in real time so a lot of this processing will take place inside or on the vehicle itself. But many functions such as machine learning and software updates will happen in the cloud.
Video features will be predominant in the vehicles of the future, improving road safety, delivering in-car entertainment and enhancing car security. Many cars now are fitted with multiple security cameras to deter vandals and car thieves, video footage can be saved on a digital card within the vehicle or sent to the cloud.

For some people the cloud has become a regular utility and has therefore lost the mystery surrounding it, many now treat it as an everyday service such as electricity or water. For those who are still puzzled by it, that’s ok, people don’t need to know the full in’s and out’s of cloud computing to benefit from its powers.