The origin of cloud computing dates back to the early 1960s when American computer scientist and psychologist Dr. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, often known as the father of cloud computing, first introduced the concept of global networking. Now, more than 60 years later, cloud computing has become an essential part of the business world and its IT infrastructure. Between its cost-effectiveness, accessibility and scalability, it’s clear that cloud computing looks set to be the way forward.

Cloud computing provides a set of shared computing resources that includes applications, computing, storage, networking, development, and deployment platforms as well as business processes. As consumers, we all know it best as the way our smartphones back-up our digital photos and also how our laptop or PC files are backed up.

According to Gartner, by 2025 Cloud will account for more than half of enterprise IT spending and the total revenue generated by cloud, will surpass the traditional IT revenue.

Source: Gartner

Cloud computing is a well understood megatrend. As we experienced during the Covid pandemic, it promotes corporate resilience and business sustainability. This technology uses flexible data storage and processing that can be activated remotely in case of disaster or unforeseen circumstances.

It is also a greener option compared to traditional IT!

By switching to the cloud, organizations can reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint by up to 90%, due to shared infrastructure and higher server utilisation. Businesses are no longer required to buy and maintain their own IT infrastructure: they can use cloud-based services to access the same apps and data (once migrated off premises to the Cloud) from any computer or device with an internet connection.

Companies that wish to remain competitive need Cloud as a fundamental component of their business model! To digitalize their operations, they move their data into the Cloud, which provides flexibility, improves efficiency, reduces costs and gives access to data analytics and artificial intelligence.

“Over the next 10 years or so, we see the Cloud as automating every department of business, from customer service to sales and marketing, finance and accounting to supply chain management and speeding up the pace of innovation.” Ben Derber, Rathbones.

The Cloud theme has been well understood in the market, but we believe that the combination of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things will lead to potential interesting investment opportunities and will continue to spur significant advancements in several industries, including financial technology, digital infrastructure, global cities and communications.

As one of our favourite investment themes, cloud computing has been a long-term allocation within our Model Portfolios. At Cantor Fitzgerald, we offer a discretionary management service in which we monitor and manage your portfolio, so you have more time to focus on what matters to you most. We currently offer six individually tailored investment strategies that seek to maximise returns for a given level of risk. We continuously monitor each strategy and rebalance where necessary with the aim of ensuring you don’t miss out on attractive investment opportunities or are exposed to unnecessary risks. You can learn more about our discretionary offering here.