In the last decade, the advancements in cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have really shaped how we approach almost every aspect of our daily lives, from jobs through commerce to leisure and entertainment. And more often than not, we don’t consciously realize these technologies as the elements responsible for these massive, continuously evolving shifts in an ever-digitizing world.
In business, the effects of the cloud and AI is more tangible; organizations want to utilize these tools to streamline processes and procedures and gain more competitive advantages. Therefore, they usually work with and try to combine AI and cloud computing to become well-architected and retain their future-proof standing in the market and create a strategy that can evolve along with these technologies.
But how exactly should you imagine the synergy between these two? What do we gain when we combine the two trendiest buzzwords in IT today? In this blog post, we’re going to explore just that.
Combining Cloud and AI
Cloud is currently the go-to tech for virtually all advanced and routine daily operations that we deal with in business and personal activities. Our smart devices are connected to the cloud, and we use it to store data and synchronize apps across said devices. For businesses, it’s the perfect architecture to jumpstart digital transformation, enact greater security by going serverless, and develop state-of-the-art applications.
But what about AI? It is a concept that many people still think of as something that hasn’t happened yet, or if it does, it will result in a Terminator-style apocalypse.
Let’s stay on the ground and examine what AI can do today. First, it’s largely used to analyze data and then create patterns from those analyses: e.g., gathering data on viewer habits within a streaming platform, then extrapolating that information to create behavioral patterns and user personas. Viewers, in this case, will only enjoy the fruits of AI labor with more personalized CX, for example. As such, because things seem so tame and mundane, it doesn’t get the spotlight that often.
However, when we combine AI and cloud, both technologies can achieve their true potential, ultimately increasing productivity and efficiency in business operations.
By enhancing the relationship between the cloud and AI, we saw the rise of a new hybrid tech called Smart Cloud that has access to Machine Learning (ML) resources. Approaching this from a more practical viewpoint, the Smart Cloud (or cloud AI) presents two major use cases to help organizations: Cloud AI services and Cloud ML platforms.
And what are those advantages that organizations can reap with this technology? An expanded capacity to deal with more complex business cases and a well-defined, assertive, and practically unlimited database. Automatic transaction identification and allocation, the continuous development of predictive solutions, and anomaly detection have also become available tools thanks to this combination.
What Is a Cloud-Based Artificial Intelligence?
So now we can see that a cloud AI’s purpose is to collect data, use that to learn as much as possible about what it’s observing, and then create punctual predictions based on patterns it can establish within that data. If everything goes well, it will then solve problems before the user could ever notice those.
Just this simplified explanation of an AI-powered cloud can project the incredible opportunities present in this concept. In the coming decades, we will witness these two technologies merge into one. And already, even in our daily lives, we can experience this through intelligent assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, or Siri, for example.
There is one important consideration to keep in mind; however, to get the best out of this combination, the basic requirement is always to keep the information that the AI needs available to the AI (for example, on the cloud tech’s database servers) because this is how it can access and use the resources it needs to develop its decision making and analytical abilities through ML.
Not only does this ensure that the AI keeps learning, but it will lead to a host of new and analyzed information being sent back to the cloud, where new AIs can benefit from all the processed data and amplify their own learning.
Actually, this is the reason why exponential computing power increases have become possible in the last decade and how we handle numerous data sets of gigantic proportions simultaneously.
Benefits of Cloud–AI Combination
Savings
It is likely the most important reason for many business leaders and why they’ll consider combining AI and cloud solutions. As we’ve written about this in the past, the cloud model basically allows to only pay for the storage that the organization actually needs, which can be scaled up and down according to immediate needs and usage.
So that removes the burden of traditional infrastructure costs and the need for physical data centers, allowing companies to transform the cost savings into an investment that can now go into AI development.
Environments then can be built to meet concrete business needs, leveraging the high adaptability of the cloud architecture. And while the environments will look and feel different, the result is reduced costs, more money saved, and more funds to advance AI development. Rinse and repeat for as long as needed.
Data Management
AI and cloud together will yield access to incredible amounts of data in a way that was not quite imaginable two decades ago. This is because AI systems are purpose-built to work with high capacities that can process huge chunks of data, allowing the system to identify what it needs for the consistent provision of the kind of assertive information that businesses want.
And the perfect, data-rich environment for that is the cloud itself. In a nutshell, significantly more extensive data volumes can be supported via cloud than with legacy data storage (which had their fair share of issues due to their physical nature).
In such environments, the AI and cloud can work together for the best results; data management is enabled by the AI, while information security is maximized through cloud computing, ultimately ensuring that all the data is handled in the exact way the business wants it. In addition, the proper analysis leads to better use of the processed information to match unique business goals.
Furthermore, continuous accessibility and connectivity can also be achieved, allowing organizations to transfer data between the cloud and on-prem hardware. This ability is vital for hybrid cloud solutions, as in those cases the data control and management are some of the most critical aspects of any operation.
Going Agile
The highly acclaimed agile development methodology also becomes more feasible through the marriage of AI and cloud. It leads to processes being handled with minimal error rates and increased efficiency, enabling organizations to stick to delivery timelines and faster market time.
Automation
Businesses always seek ways to allow more productive and creative time for their employees. And that requires a reduction in the more tedious, repetitive tasks.
Fortunately, Smart Cloud can also enable the intelligent automation of operations within the cloud, leading to more simplified cloud processes. In addition, the AI’s capacity to automate through previously established predictive algorithms can help set up these automated processes while also making actions more specific and analytical.
Because AI can leverage historical data in the cloud environment to facilitate its learning, it will automatically identify trends and widely used standards and then make new recommendations based on those. This way, the human error factor can be eliminated during analysis, significantly increasing its speed and providing decision-making that best suits businesses and customers’ individual needs.
Team Integration
Last but not least, with the combination of AI and cloud, you can also enhance the integration of work between separate teams. As the cloud AI makes full data sharing between departments possible by managing the network’s hierarchy of users, DevOps and other teams can benefit greatly from information exchange, further facilitating their collaboration.
All in all, if modern businesses want to keep pace with current trends and remain profitable, the marriage of AI and cloud environments is an advancement that must be implemented. It will turn into a gift that keeps on giving.
AI and the cloud combined will deliver productivity, enhanced digital security, agility, efficiency, and faster time to market while enabling robust data management that results in predictive and automated procedures for quicker and more accurate results. Ultimately, businesses that move in this direction will be able to maximize the utilization of their assets, scale their operations and apps better, and create more innovative solutions.
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