As we peek into 2025, the cloud landscape continues evolving, shaping how businesses operate, innovate, and protect their digital assets.
With hybrid models gaining traction, AI integration accelerating, and multi-cloud strategies redefining enterprise IT, cloud technology stands at the forefront of digital transformation.
Industry leaders share their insights and predictions for the trends and challenges that will dominate the cloud ecosystem in the year ahead.
John Bradshaw, director of cloud computing technology and strategy EMEA, Akamai
“In 2025, AI will become integral to Cloud-driven operations, with more tangible applications than before. Organisations will begin to realise the potential of changing company headcounts by automating repetitive tasks and decision-making processes.
However, many companies may face challenges due to underbudgeting for AI implementation and the substantial data requirements necessary for these systems to function effectively.
As AI moves from buzzword to business imperative, many organisations will find that their Cloud infrastructure (essential as the backbone of AI advancements) is not yet equipped to handle the intensive data and computing workloads that AI demands.”
Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO
“The adoption of the hybrid cloud model will continue in 2025 due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The hybrid model has highlighted the need for cost optimisation as data volumes grow, as well as the necessity of robust cloud security.
“New tools like standardised APIs, self-service portals, and cloud storage gateways have made it easier to manage hybrid cloud environments. However, more work is still needed to streamline cloud and on-premises systems integration.
“Nevertheless, new challenges are bound to arise, such as the need for consistent security practices across hybrid cloud infrastructures to manage risks effectively. Additionally, the complexity of managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure will increase data sprawl and waste resources and will require skilled professionals to manage it.”
Steve Ellis, head of Amdocs cloud division, Amdocs
“In 2025, enterprises that initially made big bets on a single cloud hyperscaler will begin to diversify by introducing secondary providers, adding competition, and unlocking capabilities their primary provider may not offer.
“While the major cloud players still dominate enterprise spend, there will be a noticeable shift toward multi-cloud strategies as businesses seek to complement their existing investments. This trend and the evolution of cloud networks from the enterprise to the application portfolio level will drive greater self-service capabilities for both tech and business teams.
Additionally, as cloud continues to mature, AI’s regulatory compliance and technical tooling will also improve, enabling public-facing AI interactions to become more commonplace.”
Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy
“In 2025, the adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud environments will continue to accelerate, driven by organisations seeking to optimise costs and avoid vendor lock-in.
As more providers embrace multi-cloud strategies, we will see significant growth in platforms offering a single pane of glass for platforms such as API management, firewalls, data, and Kubernetes. This move would reduce the overheads associated with managing multiple cloud environments.
To support the drive for standardisation, Kubernetes will become the default hosting platform for many, ensuring software engineers have a consistent development experience, regardless of the cloud provider.
Much of this shift will be driven by platform engineering, as organisations transform their DevOps teams into platform engineering teams that focus on the entire developer ecosystem. This transformation will enhance the efficiency and productivity of development processes across different cloud environments.
Overall, 2025 will be a pivotal year for cloud technology, with advancements in hybrid and multi-cloud environments providing businesses greater flexibility, security, and control over their digital infrastructure.”
Johan Paulsson, CTO, Axis Communications
In previous years, we’ve highlighted how hybrid architectures, those making the best use of edge, cloud, and on-premises technologies, have become the de facto choice for security solutions.
The drivers for the choice of architecture will be unique to every organisation, considering technological, legal, ethical and governance concerns and requirements.
Whether demanded by emerging local and regional regulations or concerns over data control, cost, or energy efficiency, hybrid solutions will continue to offer the greatest flexibility in creating architectures to suit specific organisational needs best and allow a system to be scaled.”
Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO
“Data protection will always be a top priority for cloud environments. More businesses are using strong cloud security measures to protect against ransomware attacks, including encryption, access controls, and immutable storage to combat cloud-specific cyber threats.
There’s growing understanding of the shared responsibility model between organisations and cloud service providers (CSPs), though some companies are still catching up. The focus will be on implementing robust backup and recovery solutions, encryption, and access controls to protect critical data across hybrid cloud infrastructures.”
Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy
“The current geopolitical climate, marked by uncertainty and the potential for a global trade war, will bring cloud sovereignty to the forefront. Discussions around data sovereignty and localised cloud services will become more prevalent, with major hyperscalers already exploring solutions in this space.
This shift will be crucial for businesses looking to ensure compliance with regional regulations, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for UK financial services and Insurance companies and mitigate risks associated with geopolitical tensions.”
Subscribe to our Editor's weekly newsletter
Share
