Cloud and data storage technologies are growing at a staggering rate. It is hard to imagine what the future of these industries will look like in 10 years. But, we can make some guesses based on current trends and innovations.
In 2025, we will likely be living in a world where everything is online and connected to the internet. The same way that the cloud has changed how we work today, it will also change how we live. Here are some predictions on how cloud and data storage will progress over the next decade.
Artificial intelligence on bare metal servers
Bare metal servers offered by companies like Maxihost are beneficial for training AI on sets of data due to their superior performance across the board.
We are now starting to see the emergence of machines that understand their environment and perform tasks based on what they learn. We saw the emergence of ‘robot’ servers powered by the cloud, where the machine learns to perform specific tasks based on its observations. We’ll likely see this same pattern extend into how we consume computing.
Cloud-based data and storage services will learn to predict our behaviors and make smart recommendations to allow us to access this data and data storage even when it is not technically online. This will enable us to create online ‘bare metal’ data servers with artificial intelligence on our servers, making them super-efficient.
Large-scale data center infrastructure will eventually be powered by artificial intelligence. Rather than relying on external storage or hosted servers, cloud users will be able to consume virtual machine storage directly from their dedicated hardware.
You will see more desktop computers built for artificial intelligence, with entire computers dedicated to neural networks. For example, NVIDIA is building a computer specifically for deep learning that takes data from a live video feed and stores it.
Also, in 2025, most computer memory will be 3D XPoint. 3D XPoint technology is a type of non-volatile memory that stores data and serves as a memory replacement.
Will we see serverless computing mainstreamed?
Serverless computing is all about using infrastructure and services that have been pre-built. As well as being incredibly fast, serverless computing uses less CPU power and runs off fewer resources.
Clouds are already moving towards serverless computing. Numerous companies are focusing on a serverless-first architecture. Serverless computing could eventually completely replace cloud computing – but it’s not going to happen overnight.
Cloud will become even more embedded in our daily lives. Even our social lives will be fundamentally changed. Think about all the consumer and business data that is stored on the cloud.
GPU-powered data centers
This is one of the most exciting predictions for 2025. A GPU is a very simple and efficient computer that performs many tasks at once, not only processing graphics. In fact, the reason top-shelf GPU prices skyrocketed is because of their raw power potential in mining cryptocurrency compared to CPU power.
Last year, Nvidia released the A100 graphics processor, along with the DGX A100 – a 50lb board that combines eight A100 graphics processors into a super-GPU, intended to replace a server’s CPU. It shows incredible promise in AI training, data analytics, financial forecasting, and more.
It’s estimated that the Internet of Things will require up to 4,000 GPU cores to process all the data. To support that, cloud providers will likely need to move to GPU-powered data centers.
Creating a GPU-powered data center requires a lot of power and a lot of money. There are currently only around 400,000 worldwide. If cloud providers were to use GPUs, they’d need access to many server farms, which would cost a fortune. However, GPUs are cheaper to buy and are getting cheaper. Thus, we could be approaching a tipping point when GPU farms are no longer financially inaccessible.