Looking to 2023: Opportunity for businesses to take the reins on data storage economics

What a tremendous year 2022 has been for Wasabi. As co-founder and CEO, I could not be more grateful for the growth Wasabi has seen, including its recent achievement of unicorn status, proving that Wasabi’s singular focus on cloud storage is resonating with the market. Wasabi also saw global expansion in five new regions to address the data needs in Paris, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Singapore. We introduced Cloud Sync Manager to offer hyperscaler customers an affordable off-ramp to cost-effective and higher-performing cloud storage with Wasabi. We announced a major sponsorship with Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool Football Club, almost doubled the size of our channel network of over 14,000 partners, and greatly expanded our technology alliance partnerships in the surveillance, backup, and media and entertainment industries with leading vendors like Axis Communications, Veeam, and Telestream.

We’ve been through a lot over the last year, and as we reflect on our accomplishments, it’s not without thought of the hardships we’ve all encountered as a global community. From economic uncertainties to recovering from the COVID-19 aftermath, we’re all eagerly looking forward to a new year with hopes of growth and security.

As we look ahead to 2023, I want to share my insights on what I see as the key areas affecting businesses across the globe. I Invited a few of my Wasabi colleagues to share their thoughts on trends to look out for in the next year. These people are experts in their fields, from security to marketing, media and entertainment, and beyond. Here is how we see 2023 coming into view.

Prioritization of data sovereignty will only grow in 2023:

There’s very little latency between Canadian cities like Toronto and Montreal to our nearest datacenter in the U.S. Nevertheless, to win customers in Canada, we had to put a datacenter in Toronto. This is an example of data sovereignty being driven by geopolitical considerations. Similarly, in Japan, we had to put one datacenter in Tokyo and one in Osaka 500km away because of considerations around floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. With changing environments, organizations are more disposed to replicating their data across hundreds or thousands of miles while still in-country. In 2023, we’re seeing growing threats, such as severe natural disasters and geopolitical conflicts, become vital players in organizations’ data backup and archiving strategies. Next year and beyond, it will be more critical than ever for organizations to think carefully about the location of their data backups to help avoid catastrophic data loss. – David Friend, co-founder and CEO, Wasabi

Accelerated adoption of IoT technologies will drive demand for high-performance storage:

In 2023 and beyond, more IoT, analytics technologies and applications will leverage high-performance cloud storage — equipped to handle the very small objects created by billions of sensors, including fingerprint readers, accelerometers, environmental sensors, medical devices, machine assembly line sensors, and other edge applications. Ultimately, IoT-based industries will rely on high-performance storage to power invaluable, real-world benefits and breakthroughs, such as faster analytic response times and quicker uncovering of medical trends (e.g., accelerating genome sequencing from days to hours.) The ability to store IoT data economically, and to access it quickly, will drive new business models for organizations and create entirely new industries. – David Boland, VP of Cloud Strategy, Wasabi

Cloud-based strategies will become a central tenet of data security:

Given the heavy reliance on virtual tools to support hybrid work environments across the globe, increasing adoption of SaaS tools, and continued growth of enterprise data volumes, it is inevitable that cybersecurity threats will persist and become increasingly complex in 2023. I expect to see more IT and security decision-makers adopting cloud-based backup strategies as a central tenet of their overall data security strategy. Secondary and tertiary copies of data can be quickly replicated and stored in one or more regions/geographies without the need to purchase or implement any local hardware. Businesses can also utilize the immutable storage capabilities offered by cloud providers — which ensure specific files and objects cannot be tampered with — granting teams assurance that there are no inconsistencies between their active data and backup copies. As security threats remain persistent in 2023 and beyond, cloud data management and protection features like cross-region replication and object lock/immutability will be increasingly important tools for security and infrastructure admins in their perpetual battle to prevent data loss and downtime due to malware and ransomware attack. – Andrew Smith, Sr. Manager of Strategy and Market Intelligence, Wasabi

Shifts in the surveillance industry affect how companies look at data storage:

The video surveillance industry is expected to grow at a CAGR (‘21-’26) of 9% (Omdia Research). In response to this new technology burdening traditional storage infrastructures, organizations may adopt cloud storage as providers have a pricing structure compatible with video surveillance data. Most end-users still utilize physical recording servers to house their video storage. Even though cloud storage is still considered in the early adoption stage, the video surveillance market is trending toward a tipping point on local storage capacities. Like all other markets, the amount of data generated continues to increase rapidly. The emergence of cloud storage providers with a cost-effective pricing structure that are compatible with the demands of video surveillance deployments (i.e., no charge for egress or API requests) means many organizations will continue to transition to a more scalable, hybrid-cloud storage model. Specific industries that may quickly adopt cloud storage for video surveillance will be Education, Local Government, Healthcare, and Cannabis. Having a cost-effective storage option for all of these industries lets them invest in newer technologies that will improve their overall security, not having to focus on how much storage costs they’re going to consume. – Danny Collins, Product Marketing Manager, Surveillance Marketing, Wasabi

AI use in sports will drive increased cloud adoption:

As major league sports teams, like the Boston Red Sox, develop new ways to engage their fans, including utilizing artificial intelligence to deliver personalized content, the data their IT teams need to manage is going to outpace their ability to capitalize on all of the data being generated. Large enterprises are increasingly turning to cloud vendors to help with data management, and 2023 will see the trend of data growth continue, especially as sports teams deploy new applications that support smart stadiums and enhanced fan experiences. Additionally, sports leagues have historical footage and other archives needed to digitize as  current storage sources deteriorate. As sports organizations begin to archive their files more securely, cloud storage will gain adoption as the best solution to house important content because of its affordability and security. As a result of more centralized, cloud-based storage, AI will be used to aid in cataloging and categorizing this content. The sheer volume of footage makes human-powered tagging unfeasible. Still, advances in AI have enabled the technology to identify key elements in a video clip, like a touchdown pass, or a player’s jersey, that can be used as search terms. Sports has always been a driver of big data, and adding AI to the picture will lead to breakthroughs in how we experience the games we love. – Whit Jackson, VP of media & entertainment sales, Wasabi

Marketers’ cloud storage needs evolve with the increased use of digital tools:

One area that intrigues all marketers is hyper-targeting. Data collection and analysis require cloud technology and analytics tools to help businesses make sense of data and use it to a competitive advantage in reaching the right people at the right time. Analyzing this data also helps pinpoint messaging and create customized campaigns to improve ROI. As businesses like the Boston Bruins use the cloud to store and manage their customer data, they may also consider multi-cloud environments to run data across multiple clouds. For example, they may run their website on one cloud because of its cost competitiveness and run their AI and business intelligence in a more robust offering. This can help speed up time to market and create a fast and flexible solution built for their business. – Julie Barry, VP of global brand & communications, Wasabi

For more 2023 cloud technology predictions, watch the webinar “Wasabi’s Hot 2023 Predictions for the Cloud.”