Cloud technology incorporates various technologies integrated together, all made possible by Web-based connections. Communications, databases, networking, servers, software, and storage are delivered through the Internet. Some of these cloud-based technologies include:
These cloud technologies offer significant advantages to businesses, including considerable cost savings, improved employee productivity, and growth scalability. But there are risks to consider too, such as security concerns, spend inefficiencies, and potential downtime.
With an experienced cloud services partner on your side, you’ll maximize the benefits of cloud technology implementations and mitigate the risks. Connection is your one stop for all things Cloud Technology.
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Backend as a Service (BaaS)
- Security as a Service (SECaaS)
- Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
- Database as a Service (DBaaS)
- Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
- Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
- Desktop Virtualization Infrastructure (VDI)
With an experienced cloud services partner on your side, you’ll maximize the benefits of cloud technology implementations and mitigate the risks. Connection is your one stop for all things Cloud Technology.
The Cloud-native Platform that Works the Way You Do
From endpoint security to virtual desktops, Omnissa enables a seamless, self-managing digital work environment—optimized for agility, security, and cost control.The Future of Cloud Technology: 5 Key Trends for 2025
As we head into 2025, businesses are moving away from rigid, one-size-fits-all approaches and embracing more flexible, intelligent, and tailored solutions. A recent survey of over 1,400 IT decision-makers found that more than 90% are reworking their cloud strategies, with hybrid and multi-cloud environments leading the charge. At the same time, AI-driven cloud management, edge computing, and industry-specific cloud platforms are reshaping the landscape.
With these changes accelerating, let’s explore five key cloud technology trends set to shape IT in 2025:
1. The Rise of Multicloud and Hybrid Cloud Strategies
Businesses are increasingly adopting multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies to enhance flexibility, avoid vendor lock-in, and improve resilience. A recent survey found that 82% of companies use a multi-cloud approach, while 90% of organizations will adopt hybrid cloud by 2027.By distributing workloads across multiple providers, organizations mitigate the risks of dependency on a single vendor while optimizing performance and cost management. Hybrid-cloud strategies also enable companies to maintain critical workloads on-premises, while integrating with public and private clouds—balancing security, compliance, and operational efficiency.
At the same time, advancements in cloud interoperability and workload migration are making it easier for businesses to operate across multiple cloud environments. New tools and services now enable real-time data synchronization between platforms, reducing complexity and enhancing operational efficiency. This allows companies to move workloads dynamically, leveraging the best features of each provider while ensuring business continuity and scalability.
2. Edge Computing Gains Traction
As businesses prioritize real-time data processing and lower latency, edge computing is emerging as a critical complement to cloud infrastructure. Rather than replacing the cloud, edge computing extends its capabilities by enabling local data processing while syncing with cloud platforms for storage, AI model training, and advanced analytics.By 2028, global spending on edge computing is expected to reach $378 billion, driven by its ability to process data closer to the source, reducing delays and lightening the load on centralized cloud infrastructure. Major providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud now offer integrated edge solutions, blending AI-driven cloud computing with real-time processing. The rise of 5G further accelerates this shift, delivering high-speed, low-latency connectivity that powers autonomous systems, IoT, and smart infrastructure.
Industries such as healthcare (real-time patient monitoring), manufacturing (predictive maintenance), and retail (personalized customer experiences) are already leveraging edge computing to drive innovation. Compared to companies with ad hoc implementations, highly integrated edge adopters are four times more likely to accelerate innovation, nine times more likely to increase efficiency, and nearly seven times more likely to reduce costs. As businesses move toward more flexible, hybrid cloud architectures, edge computing will remain a key enabler of agility and real-time decision-making.
3. AI and Machine Learning Driving Cloud Automation
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are reshaping cloud management by making it more efficient, cost-effective, and secure. AI-powered cloud automation helps organizations optimize resource allocation, reduce operational costs, and enhance security by identifying inefficiencies and automatically adjusting workloads. Cloud providers now offer AI-driven cost optimization tools that analyze usage patterns and recommend ways to minimize expenses without sacrificing performance.AI also plays a key role in predictive analytics, automated scaling, and self-healing cloud infrastructures. By analyzing real-time data, AI can predict demand spikes, dynamically allocate resources, and proactively address system failures before they impact operations. This is particularly valuable for businesses with fluctuating workloads, such as e-commerce, media streaming, and financial services, where AI ensures seamless performance while preventing downtime and optimizing costs.
Another emerging trend is the rise of AI-powered DevOps and cloud-native AI applications. Machine learning models are now being embedded into DevOps workflows to automate testing, deployment, and monitoring, reducing human intervention and accelerating software development cycles. Additionally, cloud-native AI applications—from intelligent chatbots to real-time analytics engines—are becoming mainstream, enabling businesses to leverage AI capabilities without the need for extensive in-house expertise.
4. Enhanced Cloud Security and Zero Trust Architecture
As cloud adoption accelerates, security risks are escalating. With businesses increasingly relying on distributed cloud architectures, ensuring consistent security across platforms has become more complex. Nearly half (47%) of businesses identified cloud security as their top cybersecurity concern. The risk is even greater for organizations using hybrid and multi-cloud environments, with 54% citing cloud security as their most pressing issue.To combat these risks, companies are turning to Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)—a “never trust, always verify” approach that continuously authenticates users and devices before granting access. This model enforces strict identity and access management (IAM) policies, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), least privilege access, and continuous monitoring to prevent unauthorized access. Cloud providers are embedding Zero Trust frameworks into their platforms, enabling organizations to strengthen their security posture while maintaining agility.
AI and machine learning are also playing a growing role in real-time threat detection and automated security responses. AI-driven security tools analyze vast amounts of cloud activity data to identify anomalies, detect suspicious behavior, and respond to threats before they escalate. Automated security mechanisms—such as self-healing cloud infrastructures and AI-powered security orchestration—help businesses mitigate risks faster and reduce reliance on manual intervention. As cyber threats evolve, AI-powered security and Zero Trust adoption will be critical in safeguarding cloud environments.
5. Industry-specific Cloud Solutions on the Rise
As cloud adoption matures, businesses with more verticalized cloud offerings that combine infrastructure, software, and security features are being designed to address the challenges of specific sectors, helping organizations accelerate digital, while meeting compliance and regulatory requirements.Industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail, and government are at the forefront of this shift:
- Financial institutions require secure, high-performance cloud environments to handle real-time transactions and prevent fraud.
- Healthcare organizations need HIPAA-compliant cloud solutions that enable secure data sharing while protecting patient privacy.
- Retailers benefit from AI-driven cloud platforms that enhance customer experiences through personalized recommendations and demand forecasting.
- Government agencies leverage FedRAMP-certified cloud solutions to support secure data management and digital services.
Cloud in 2025: A Strategic Imperative, Not Just an IT Decision
Businesses that invest in scalable, secure, and AI-powered cloud solutions will be better positioned to navigate the complexities of an increasingly digital world. The key to success in 2025 and beyond will be leveraging cloud technology not just as an infrastructure choice, but as a strategic enabler of innovation and growth.Cloud Technology Updates
Keep Me Informed about the Latest Cloud Computing News
Virtualization
HPE Desktop Virtualization Solutions
Usher in a new era of change when you begin your journey to desktop virtualization. Sound complicated? It’s not with HPE at your side. Download this brief to learn how VDI can help your organization benefit through cost savings, simplified management, enhanced security, and increased productivity. Inside you’ll find information on:
- What type of users need VDI
- Why VDI is changing the IT landscape
- How HPE’s portfolio of solutions can help enable your agility
Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)
Empower your employees to work from home instantly, while improving efficiency, productivity, and data security. Parallels RAS is a powerful all-in-one virtual desktop infrastructure solution that delivers applications and virtual desktops to any device—anytime, anywhere.
Parallels RAS Application Delivery and VDI Solution
Data Sheet
Why Parallels RAS?- Easy to deploy, manage, and maintain
- Reduce total cost of ownership
- Superior user experience
- Enhanced data security
- IT agility and business readiness
- Ease of mind
How Parallels Can Help Your Business Navigate a Post-COVID-19 World
White Paper
Many businesses are deciding whether temporary measures should evolve into permanent ones—as companies adopt long-term work-from-home policies. But these remote workplaces can only be effective if they are secure, easy to deploy, and allow employees full access to every application they need to successfully perform their roles.Anything as a Service (XaaS)
Your source for all things Cloud, Colocation, and Connectivity.
Backup as a Service (BaaS)
Traditional backup approaches are not designed for today’s IT environment. A backup and recovery plan is essential for your organization. Data loss events can happen at any time and take a variety of forms, from system failures to human error, cyberattacks, and more.The need for a robust backup and recovery strategy is undeniable, but finding the right solution to fit your needs can be difficult. The right solution should provide highly-efficient data security. It should also be simple to manage, scalable, futureproof, and much more.
Learn more about HPE GreenLake to see why it is the ideal BaaS solution for your organization.
Read Full Transcript
A typical wide area network often includes a mix of private circuits, like MPLS and point-to-points, as well as public internet circuits, like fiber, copper and cable, all spread across wide geographic locations.
With cloud-based services becoming more popular, bandwidth requirements have exponentially increased, but each data packet is still routed without any consideration of other networks. This means that dozens of connections might lie dormant, while another is weighed down with traffic.
The solution to this inefficiency is software-defined wide area network. SD-WAN is an intelligent solution that efficiently manages all network connections and policies as a whole, reducing costs and harnessing all available bandwidth.
Picture your entire network as super highways in the metropolis of their enterprise. If one highway suffers from congestion, SD-WAN is the navigation that automatically routes data to a faster highway with less traffic. Even if one highway goes offline, traffic will still be securely routed to its destination, replacing need for VPNs.
SD-WAN can also prioritize critical applications like voice for best customer experience. SD-WAN harnesses the total throughput of all networks with minimal management and maximum data reporting. You can swap or supplement existing networks for inexpensive public connections, optimizing performance and cost. Once configured, deploying additional branches is quick and dynamic.
What complaints do users have regarding network or application performance? Which connections are underutilized or only used for backup? What are your mission-critical applications and where are they located? What are your biggest challenges in managing network costs? If you could improve one thing about your network, what would it be?
A typical wide area network often includes a mix of private circuits, like MPLS and point-to-points, as well as public internet circuits, like fiber, copper and cable, all spread across wide geographic locations.
With cloud-based services becoming more popular, bandwidth requirements have exponentially increased, but each data packet is still routed without any consideration of other networks. This means that dozens of connections might lie dormant, while another is weighed down with traffic.
The solution to this inefficiency is software-defined wide area network. SD-WAN is an intelligent solution that efficiently manages all network connections and policies as a whole, reducing costs and harnessing all available bandwidth.
Picture your entire network as super highways in the metropolis of their enterprise. If one highway suffers from congestion, SD-WAN is the navigation that automatically routes data to a faster highway with less traffic. Even if one highway goes offline, traffic will still be securely routed to its destination, replacing need for VPNs.
SD-WAN can also prioritize critical applications like voice for best customer experience. SD-WAN harnesses the total throughput of all networks with minimal management and maximum data reporting. You can swap or supplement existing networks for inexpensive public connections, optimizing performance and cost. Once configured, deploying additional branches is quick and dynamic.
What complaints do users have regarding network or application performance? Which connections are underutilized or only used for backup? What are your mission-critical applications and where are they located? What are your biggest challenges in managing network costs? If you could improve one thing about your network, what would it be?
Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN)
SD-WAN provides numerous benefits, including enhanced network efficiency and reduced network operating costs. But the selection of the right SD-WAN solution can be time-consuming and complex. There’s a lot of criteria to consider, including applications supported, security and geographic needs, preference for self or turnkey management, and more.The AVANT Research and Analytics Report will help you to evaluate this wide variety of options and considerations that should factor into your technology planning processes. For more direct assistance, reach out to a Connection specialist.
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
A Guide to Maximizing UCaaS Implementation
There are a number of different products and services that make up Unified Communications as a Service, but the true value of UCaaS lies in its interoperability and integration. Combining the various features into a fully compatible communications solution displaces a series of point products, simplifies management, strengthens interoperability, and in many cases, reduces cost and complexity.The AVANT Research and Analytics Report offers a great overview of the UCaaS industry, including the results of an extensive market survey. However, if you’d like more direct assistance, reach out to a Connection specialist to start (or upgrade) your UCaaS implementation today.
Read Full Transcript
With the accelerating pace of change in IT, it has never been more critical to create value with your communication applications. For many years, phone lines and legacy PBX hardware systems were able to meet these needs. These days, those are the table stakes. With demanding employee and consumer level expectations and exponential potential for business growth, legacy hardware systems simply cannot keep up with the pace of change to give your business the edge it needs to stay competitive. This is especially true when looking at increased needs for mobile devices and mobile workforce. The solution is unified communications as a service or UCAAS.
UCAAS is a managed cloud-based solution helping businesses take full advantage of ever-changing communication needs. UCAAS always stays up-to-date, eliminating the need to pay and implement upgrades. Additionally, native integrations to cloud platforms such as Salesforce, Slack, Office 365 or Google apps further enhance end-user productivity, while allowing you to retain your existing legacy on premise investments, such as handsets and overhead paging systems. Voice, fax, social messaging, conferencing, and more are combined into a unified application experience accessible from any device anywhere.
With UCAAS, your communication platform becomes a business analytics tool, allowing you to delve into your business call details with customizable dashboards and artificial intelligence agents, so management can work smarter and allocate resources with confidence. The result, IT is freed for managing hardware and servers to delivering strategic business needs. Finance is freed from planning capital expenditures to analyzing business impacts, and the leaders are free from the limitations of isolated systems to anywhere communications. UCAAS allows you to stay ahead of the accelerating pace of change.
Is your current communications platform up-to-date. Tell me about the last time you went through an upgrade. What were the pain points? What are your biggest challenges with your current communication platform? What problems are disparate phone services causing in your business? What integration and reporting insights do you expect with your CRM and business tools? What are your internal users' and end customers' opinions of your communication experience?
With the accelerating pace of change in IT, it has never been more critical to create value with your communication applications. For many years, phone lines and legacy PBX hardware systems were able to meet these needs. These days, those are the table stakes. With demanding employee and consumer level expectations and exponential potential for business growth, legacy hardware systems simply cannot keep up with the pace of change to give your business the edge it needs to stay competitive. This is especially true when looking at increased needs for mobile devices and mobile workforce. The solution is unified communications as a service or UCAAS.
UCAAS is a managed cloud-based solution helping businesses take full advantage of ever-changing communication needs. UCAAS always stays up-to-date, eliminating the need to pay and implement upgrades. Additionally, native integrations to cloud platforms such as Salesforce, Slack, Office 365 or Google apps further enhance end-user productivity, while allowing you to retain your existing legacy on premise investments, such as handsets and overhead paging systems. Voice, fax, social messaging, conferencing, and more are combined into a unified application experience accessible from any device anywhere.
With UCAAS, your communication platform becomes a business analytics tool, allowing you to delve into your business call details with customizable dashboards and artificial intelligence agents, so management can work smarter and allocate resources with confidence. The result, IT is freed for managing hardware and servers to delivering strategic business needs. Finance is freed from planning capital expenditures to analyzing business impacts, and the leaders are free from the limitations of isolated systems to anywhere communications. UCAAS allows you to stay ahead of the accelerating pace of change.
Is your current communications platform up-to-date. Tell me about the last time you went through an upgrade. What were the pain points? What are your biggest challenges with your current communication platform? What problems are disparate phone services causing in your business? What integration and reporting insights do you expect with your CRM and business tools? What are your internal users' and end customers' opinions of your communication experience?
Could Rethinking Storage Speed Up Your Cloud Performance and Reduce Costs?
Businesses move their applications and data to the cloud for agility, cost savings, and streamlined performance. Initially, the gains organizations make with cloud computing can have a major impact on both increasing performance and reducing costs. Yet over time, cloud performance can slow—and costs can rise—as maturing cloud ecosystems aren’t maintained or optimized. If you’re interested in getting more from your cloud deployments, read our free eBook to discover why storage can be the key to unlocking effective performance and affordable rates.
The Essential Cloud Technologies for Success
As the demand for agile and scalable infrastructure has increased and there’s been a dramatic shift to remote and hybrid work solutions, cloud adoption has evolved from a technology strategy to a business strategy. Cloud adoption is now not only pervasive, but the default. Read our free eBook to discover the 5 cloud technologies to consider in 2024 and beyond.
Cloud Security
Security Report
by AVANT Research and Analytics
The first step in your security posture should be a true and honest assessment of what is already in place. The operative term here is “true and honest.” It may be tempting to gloss over newly discovered gaps or issues regarding the comprehensiveness of your company’s IT security infrastructure. This is especially true if the discrepancies might reflect poorly on specific individuals. However, a problem found is nearly as crucial as a problem solved.
Download the 36-Page AVANT Research and Analytics Security Report to learn more.
Cybersecurity Services
Assess and mitigate your organizations’ security risk and ease the burden of protecting your most critical assets, including data availability and privacy.
Learn how your company can identify and eliminate cybersecurity risk.
Security Assessment
Has your organization taken the time to identify existing security flaws, device and network vulnerabilities, and malicious network activity?
Discover how to secure your IT infrastructure.
Security Compliance
Don’t wait―proactively ensure your business is meeting its regulatory requirements.
Get expert help to manage your risk and stay in industry compliance.
Managed Security Services
Does your organization need help responding to security threats?
Get expert help to monitor and manage security events.
Security Technology Integration
Identify potential redundancies and inefficiencies before they impact the bottom line.
Learn how to unify your stack to reduce the complexity of your technology.
Connection Cloud Services
Cloud Services
Whether you are beginning to determine the best cloud model to suit your needs, assessing which application workloads can be safely moved to the cloud, or considering which cloud service provider would serve the best return on your investment, our cloud experts can help.
Learn how your company can maximize its investment in the cloud.
Microsoft Azure
Does your company have significant investments in Microsoft products, services, tools, and frameworks?
Learn how to easily migrate your workloads to Azure.
Azure Managed Services
Effective management is needed to get the most out of your company’s cloud investments.
Get expert help to manage operations, strengthen security, and more.
Cloud Assessments
Successful cloud migrations require understanding how cloud strengths and constraints align with your application portfolio.
Get expert help to map the optimal cloud migration path.
VMware Cloud on AWS
Does your company utilize VMware in your on-premises data center?
Find out if VMware Cloud on AWS is the right fit for your business.
Cloud Technology Resources
Backup and Recovery
A comprehensive, up-to-date backup and recovery plan is critical to staying afloat after a data loss event. Whether by system failure, theft, or natural disaster, it is likely you will experience such an event. When that happens, it is vitally important to limit data loss and downtime. Don’t wait until disaster strikes, get started today on your journey to a more protected future.
Edge Computing
Edge computing is a transformative approach to processing data that brings computation closer to the data source, at the network’s edge. There are a number of benefits to edge computing, but there are a number of challenges to overcome as well. Proper planning and implementation are critically important, so check out our extensive edge resources to get started.
How AI Is Driving Innovation and Efficiency in the Cloud
Cloud services can utilize AI and ML to optimize operations, increase cost efficiency, improve customer experience, and provide better security. Read this eBook to learn how AI is driving innovation and efficiency in the cloud.
The Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Azure
Are you new to cloud computing? Read this informative beginner’s guide and learn how Azure offers IT teams the freedom to build, manage, and deploy applications on a large global network using their preferred tools.
Optimize Your Existing Microsoft Azure Environment with a Managed Services Provider
Is your company optimizing its investment in Azure? Are there missed opportunities for improvement? Managed Services Providers (MSPs) help businesses throughout the cloud journey, including helping to reach business goals later in the cloud computing lifecycle with ongoing management.
Application Environment Management
Connection partnered with Foundry to survey 100 senior U.S. IT decision makers to better understand what modern day application management looks like. Read the report and learn what organizations like yours are doing to meet growing OT demands.
Cloud Computing for SMBs: How to Build a Scalable and Cost-Effective IT Strategy
Cloud adoption is about more than just saving money, it’s a strategic move that enables flexibility and resilience. If you’re ready to build a smarter, more scalable IT strategy, this guide will show you how to make cloud computing work for your business.
Connection Community
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