Cloud computing has come a long way from an intriguing pioneering concept to the universally accepted symbol of the new technology age. We have also expected that some of the latest trends, such as smartphones and IoT would contribute a lot to cloud computing’s next step iterations in the years ahead. Yet, after a series of changes and improvements that didn’t turn out to be game-changers, cloud computing had no other choice than to begin embracing the new hope – Artificial Intelligence or AI.

 

Artificial Intelligence and a Promise of a Cloud Computing Romance

 

To see what AI is go and test drive a game of chess against an AI opponent. This is similar to recent announcements where AI is now beating humans at Poker or at the Game of Go.

Looking back a few years IT leaders like Microsoft and IBM were already touting the benefits of AI and were aware of the imminent fusion of cloud computing and AI. Furthermore, we are witnessing a dawn of an extremely beneficial symbiotic relationship.  On the one side, cloud hosting offers a helping hand to AI necessary for learning and further improvements. On the other side, AI can feed the insatiable appetite of the cloud for more data, improved service and “smart” capabilities to help make our lives easier. So, it looks like a promising win-win for both sides, doesn’t it?

Internally at Canadian Web Hosting we have been spending time and resources investing into Watson and training our bots to help improve our service levels and efficiency across the board. This can range from helping us meet service levels to reading and notifying team members of important emails, and even going as far as deep integration into our customer panels to help customers be more aware of all of their systems and have a constant chaperone to keep an eye on everything.

Today, I recently saw one article related to the negative side of AI and the potential issues it can cause. That was the first time in the recent months where someone discussed the negative aspects of AI.  Every leading company out there is making the effort to create eye-catching applications like Cortana, Siri or Bixby because of consumer push users and businesses that are already becoming impatient to see first-hand how AI helps find us a way through the cloud labyrinth of endless servers and data. In return, AI can expect to get as much information as needed for learning and improvements.

 

How will CC-AI symbiosis look like in the future?

 

If at a certain point it becomes impossible to say where AI ends and where cloud computing ends, then we will know for sure that the cloud has found its perfect match. From what we could have seen so far, we aren’t too far away from this groundbreaking moment. Google Cloud Machine Learning platforms are already combining the cloud and AI-based machine learning. It’s too early to talk about the deep learning frameworks, but we can’t neglect that this is the important step in the right direction. Or, how about AI cloud services? They aren’t necessarily limited in terms of possible applications.

Again, using IBM Watson is a perfect example. Among other things, you can use it to improve your cybersecurity situation. Rather than a simple security device or plug-in, Watson can help fight cyber criminals and hackers by being able to comb through the huge amounts of network data in order to clearly differentiate serious security threats and common operational problems and communicating those to the relevant teams or customers. Today, researchers and companies are looking at giving these same machines the ability to predict the future using deep learning techniques and using artificial intelligence to do something powerful with that data.

 

Tech Love Triangle with a Happy Ending

 

It goes without saying that humans, the cloud technology, and eventually the AI itself have to closely work together in order for magic to happen. Yet, the reality is that there’s so much work to be done. The AI always needs to learn, the cloud can always use a helping hand with services, and the humans have to make sure that everything makes sense. So, what should we do? Well, keep an eye out for the next super-intelligent cloud heading your way because it may rain the right kind of data you need in unimaginable quantities. Worth waiting?