The top 10 IT trends for 2020 (5) – Trend 4: Enterprise applications move to the public cloud

Public cloud infrastructure has become commonplace for companies worldwide. What we will see much more in 2020 is customers of enterprise applications using hyperscalers to operate their mission-critical workloads. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services will partner with vendors of business applications, and more and more system integrators will support customers in their transition to the cloud.

However, it is not just potential cost reductions that drive this trend. Another factor is the use of the many cloud-based services that hyperscalers provide, e.g. data analytics and data lakes, artificial intelligence, integration, and agile software development. Another reason for companies to select a hyperscaler for this purpose will be the tools, services, and scalability options as well as pricing models.

Hyperscalers will invest in partnerships and additional services to attract more customers that opt for the cloud as deployment environment for their business applications.

While Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have strong awareness as cloud providers that support enterprise applications, teknowlogy/PAC expects Google to catch up fast. The vendor’s capabilities in data management and analytics will play a key role in this cloud race.

Client companies have been defining their strategies as to whether and how they can embed public cloud in their application roadmaps. In the case of SAP, we expect more and more customers to evaluate the cloud. In many cases, this will be done to combine the migration of SAP ECC to the next-generation ERP suite SAP S/4HANA with the transformation of the application deployment model.

However, migrating and deploying enterprise applications in the public cloud is not an easy thing to do. The migration itself requires a lot of planning and skilled experts. Also, companies will need external support to operate cloud services. Therefore, cloud integration and management frameworks will become key for firms that want to move enterprise software into the public cloud.

• Forecast for the European IT services market

The top 10 IT trends, which we believe will have the greatest impact in 2020:

• Platform-based industrial value networks will spread
• Edge and 5G enable real-time IT locations
• IT/OT integration leads to OT data platforms
• Enterprise applications move into the public cloud
• Next-gen app platforms embrace digital innovations
• AI-empowered business applications
• RPA and automation on the edge of AI
• Cloud-based services revolutionize application development and deployment
• Managed security services accompany the digital change
• Agile and DevOps boost flexibility