It seems like a lifetime ago when the cloud wars were raging and debates were happening throughout the tech media landscape as well as internally across organizations – which major cloud will be victorious? Will it be AWS? Azure? GCP?
Strange to think that was less than a decade ago. But the evidence is clear – they are all winners. As a general concept, the cloud proved a reliable and secure way to scale modern businesses – and there was enough business to go around for all of the major platforms. Not to mention all of the SaaS and service providers built on top of the cloud that has been wildly successful (think Datadog).
We are now entering the age of AI. More specifically, at least for the moment, Generative AI. It’s not hard to imagine the GenAI wars that will come between OpenAI and whoever else comes to the market. But the majority of businesses built around and on top of AI will still need tremendous cloud computing power.
That is to say, the rise of AI means the continuous rise of the cloud. According to HFS Research, The amount of data being generated and stored will continue to increase, and the demand for cloud resources will increase accordingly.
In this vein, it’s important to keep an eye on the companies innovating within the cloud ecosystem. Below are 5 cloud startups to watch in 2024:
**Vercel**: Founded in 2015, Vercel is a platform optimized for front-end deployment and hosting. It emphasizes speed, ease of use, and seamless collaboration. The company recently launched the Vercel AI SDK, promising to help accelerate product development by enabling users to focus on creating value with their AI applications, rather than spending time building and maintaining infrastructure.
**Wing**: The youngest company on the list, Wing exploded out of stealth with $20 million in funding last year. Led by experienced founder Elad Ben-Israel, Wing aims to unify cloud infrastructure and application code into a single programming model, abstracting away the burdensome tasks of building applications on top of cloud infrastructure.
**Kentik**: Kentik is a Network Observability platform that aims to ensure the smooth flow of packets within digital networks. The company recently launched Kentik AI, which democratizes the ability to ask complex network questions and get fast answers with AI-assisted workflows.
**Render**: Render is a cloud hosting platform designed to enhance the development experience of developers. It offers flexible, cheaper, and simpler infrastructure, and attracts developers with its ease of use and fast deployment capabilities.
**Amberflo**: Founded in 2020 by ex-AWS Puneet Gupta, Amberflo believes that the world of software will move away from subscription pricing and towards usage-based pricing. The company aims to provide a platform that can monitor and meter usage effectively, allowing companies to up-charge fairly for a reliable and predictable profit margin.
These companies showcased unique approaches and innovations in the cloud ecosystem, making them worth watching in 2024. As the cloud continues to evolve and the demand for cloud resources increases, these startups may play a significant role in shaping the future of cloud computing.
The rise of AI and Generative AI further reinforces the importance of cloud computing, as businesses built around AI will require significant cloud computing power. Keeping an eye on these startups will provide valuable insights into new advancements, technologies, and solutions emerging in the cloud landscape.
