Digital Transformation and Big Data are driving companies to reshape their business and IT departments. This has caused a large percentage of companies to move to the cloud, running their IT operations off-premise, becoming the preferred platform for any new technological development, where migration decisions are also based on the cost-benefit ratio it provides. Jason Simon, an expert on the behavior of the Latin American market, explains how cloud technology is changing the landscape of the gaming industry in the region.

The fastest growing segment of the market is cloud infrastructure services (IaaS), which is expected to continue to grow steadily. Software as a Service (SaaS) remains the largest segment of the cloud market and Simon sees it growing by more than 20%. Furthermore, SaaS spending is expected to account for 45% of total application software spending during the year.

All this data is a sign that the cloud technology services market is constantly evolving, which reinforces the regional provider's strategy together with allies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix and Oracle. All this provides hybrid cloud solutions that allow combining traditional environments with private and public clouds, fully adaptable to technical and commercial conditions, offering an agile and flexible management scenario of these tools available at the click of a button.

The use of SaaS environments from public clouds (Email, CRM, ERP, HR, and more) is becoming a growing trend, as the value of the licenses is lower than the cost of using them from the cloud. The main characteristics for each of these modalities are, in the case of the private cloud, greater privacy and data security, maximum predictability in the cost of using the platform, but little flexibility in its use.

Meanwhile, the public cloud is characterized by its maximum flexibility of use and, depending on the contracted modality. It may not have guaranteed availability SLAs or predictability in the cost of use of the platform. Finally, the hybrid cloud (as its name suggests) is a mixture of both characteristics. 

In this case, not all companies see its particularities as an advantage or disadvantage in itself. On many occasions, different projects within the same company have different visions of which are advantages and which are disadvantages.

“Another relevant issue to highlight is that in the case of the public cloud, when we talk about its characteristics, we start by saying that it depends on the contracted modality,” explains Simon. “This is very important because, without good advice or knowledge regarding the most efficient way to hire resources in public clouds, a project can go from being profitable or very profitable to having losses by not taking into account all the variables that must be considered in this type of services.”

From the expert's point of view, the most important trends are to bring world-class software solutions closer to SaaS environments, reducing licensing costs and thus being able to compete with the use of open-source software, which is gaining more and more followers worldwide. In the same line, the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning tools in SaaS environments will allow medium and small companies to take advantage of these technologies in their business environments, putting them in positions of real competition against large companies in their particular industry.

In the coming years, the most relevant thing will be the approach of large players to LATAM. For example, AWS DC openings in countries like Chile or Argentina, will reduce the reluctance to move to the cloud of those companies that had doubts about the performance of their applications running in the US versus the execution in the country or at most in the neighboring country. 

“The next challenge for these countries is how we make it transparent in which of the two countries it is installed and how we service companies leverage this infrastructure to add to the portfolio of services we already have for the customers,” concludes Simon. 

About Jason Simon 

Jason Simon is a FinTech and digital payments expert who became involved in cryptocurrencies when they were first introduced. He enthusiastically follows what is happening in the evolving world of finance, excited about the prospects digital currencies offer global consumerism. When he's not involved in helping advance the digital payments space, he enjoys spending time with his family and improving his community.

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