CloudFest 2024: AI gives a boost to hardware

Last week, our team of three – myself, Kaarel and Ats – boarded a plane and once again ventured into the exciting world of CloudFest to take a look at the new trends in web hosting services. In a nutshell, this year’s CloudFest experience included meetings with partners and friends, discovering new technologies and getting insights into future trends.

For example, WordPress continues to serve as the pillar of support of the web hosting world, but market trends suggest that the role of WordPress is becoming more and more non-existent. It is becoming more of a tool used as the base to build solutions on, which raises a perfectly legitimate question: is WordPress as a platform only necessary so one could say they use WordPress? Some brighter minds have already come to the realisation that in certain situations it may be preferable not to use WordPress, resorting to it only when necessary.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), having now reached the “teenage” phase in its development, is bringing significant changes. A year ago, AI-based text writing services were popular, but the industry has now moved on to offer even more credible services. The possibilities of AI now range from simple websites to agency tools and network architecture management. AI is clearly here to stay, making work processes more efficient and error-proof.

In addition, AI has breathed new life into hardware, making this sphere more exciting again. The innovations and solutions enabled by AI have sparked new enthusiasm in the market, with the aim of not only making eyes sparkle, but also providing actual innovations.

The volume of data is growing rapidly in our industry, and the evolution of data storage solutions must keep up the pace. There is a diverse range of solutions available on the market, capable of managing the ever-increasing volume of data. While S3-type data storage services are still in place, some of them have been left in the background due to innovations or advantages.

Information security and the reliability of websites remain critical. At the same time, trends show that these issues are becoming more and more elementary for customers. This puts pressure on service providers and encourages them to intervene more actively. In the course of the discussions, we looked at situations where, for example, old versions of PHP are still being used, which can compromise the security and modernity of a website. While there is no miracle solution to solve all problems quickly, there is an awareness and a willingness to address these issues in depth.

Finally, it is a pleasure to note that the web hosting and domain name sector continues to grow vigorously, giving impetus to innovation and new developments. This environment not only encourages technological development but also constantly creates new opportunities and challenges for both service providers and end-users.

Our CloudFest experience confirmed that we are a part of an ever-evolving ecosystem ready to take on the challenges and opportunities brought about by the future. This encourages us to continue looking for new solutions to provide even better and more secure web hosting services to meet the growing needs of our customers and partners.