2021 Cloud Computing Top Ten Keywords and Emerging Trends

On July 27, the "2021 Trusted Cloud Conference" organized by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and the China Communications Standards Association was held in Beijing. He Baohong, director of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute, officially released the "2021 Cloud Computing Top Ten Keywords" and their important development trends.

1. Cloud Native: Cloud computing architecture is being rapidly restructured with cloud native as the core technology. With accelerated "new infrastructure" initiatives, cloud computing faces new opportunities and demands for efficiency. Cloud native’s unique technical characteristics align well with these needs, becoming the driving core for qualitative transformation in cloud computing.

He Baohong predicts that reconstructing IT architecture around cloud native will be a prevailing trend in the near future.

2. High Performance: Cloud‑side high‑performance computing drives digital economy development. Computing power now propels cloud computing, big data, AI, and smart applications from concept to reality, focusing the digital economy on compute‑intensive industries. Cloud resources are increasingly enriched across compute, network, and storage, enabling large‑scale, diverse, transparent, and accessible high‑performance workloads.

3. Chaos Engineering: Safeguarding stability of complex systems. As stability of complex systems becomes a pain point, chaos engineering emerges to ensure resilience of distributed production environments under uncontrolled conditions. Although early, standards and maturity models are being developed, and a dedicated chaos engineering lab will be established.

4. Hybrid Cloud: Becoming the mainstream enterprise cloud model. The 14th Five‑Year Plan emphasizes hybrid cloud as a key focus. Globally, 82% of users have adopted hybrid cloud deployments, and various vendors are offering solutions, leading to rich industry applications.

5. Edge Computing: Gaining momentum. Edge computing is seeing rising industry attention, mature technology stacks, expanding use cases, and evolving standards. Ecosystem participants—including chip makers, cloud providers, telecom operators, software vendors, and open‑source groups—are delivering related products and services.

6. Zero Trust: Converging with native cloud security. Traditional perimeter‑based security is reaching limits as enterprises accelerate cloud adoption. Zero trust and native cloud security concepts are guiding the design of next‑generation security architectures, integrating with SaaS, SASE, and micro‑segmentation to enhance cloud security.

7. Optimized Governance: Accelerating cloud‑related governance needs. As enterprises deepen cloud usage, focus shifts from migration to post‑migration optimization, forming comprehensive cloud governance frameworks that improve lifecycle management and support digital transformation.

8. Digital Government: Digital technologies enable governance innovation. Improving digital government is a key part of the 14th Five‑Year Plan. Leveraging cloud computing and related technologies drives process reengineering, decision‑making, and service efficiency improvements.

9. Low‑Carbon Cloud: Aligning digitalization with energy reduction. Data centers consume significant energy, hindering green development. Low‑carbon cloud improves resource efficiency and integrates cloud, big data, and AI to support societal energy‑saving and carbon‑reduction goals.

10. Enterprise Digital Transformation: From macro to micro implementation. Digital transformation is a strategic national priority, increasingly moving from high‑level policy to concrete micro‑level applications across enterprise value chains.

Related reading links are provided for deeper insights into hybrid cloud architecture, NVMe over Fabrics, and Kubernetes basics.