Parsing AI and Cloud Migration Predictions for 2018

On December 29, 2017, The Enterprisers Project published 15 predictions for tech in 2018. Enterprisers Project Predictions. Multiple predictions relate to AI – artificial intelligence – and cloud solutions. Two stand out. 

Seth Noble, Founder of Data Expedition, Inc., predicts “a consolidation of best practices” for cloud migration will result in a customer-centric cloud solution paradigm rather than the current vendor-centric paradigm. This prediction seems intuitive, but it ignores a larger issue brewing under the surface --- cloud migration is not a sure bet to reduce OP EX. For every several IT groups moving to a cloud model, one will migrate back from cloud solutions to a colo or on-prem operation. 
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The second prediction comes from Rich Rogers, SVP, IoT product engineering, Hitachi Vantara, who believes data centers will be “fully autonomous” operations. “IoT and AI will enable data center issues to be root-caused and resolved automatically by software.” While it is nice to dream of a world where the facility manager controls the data center through “voice technologies” from “any location”, don’t bolt for the beach just yet. Even if AI and IoT were capable managing a data center without the need for human assistance, the data center industry is simply too risk / change averse for a seismic “full autonomy” shift to happen in 12 short months. It’s reasonable to expect this kind of shift, but not at the pace Rogers’ rosy view envisions. ​

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