As 2022 draws to a close, the era of cloud shows few signs of the same. Here are the top cloud stories from SDxCentral this year.

While the rise of cloud-native architecture and applications can’t be understated, the industry still needs to evolve by reducing the complexity associated with the technology’s benefits, according to OutSystems’ Senior Director of Platform Strategy Barry Goffe.

Cloud-native development is much easier said than done. It’s incredibly hard to build the underlying infrastructure that makes cloud-native applications possible because technologies like Kubernetes, serverless computing, and microservices are “massively complex, and the people with the skills to handle these tasks are among the most scarce resources in our industry,” Goffe told SDxCentral.

To that point, he noted “reducing complexity is where cloud-native needs to evolve so that more companies can take advantage of the benefits.”

United Kingdom communications regulator Ofcom launched a market study to examine potential “competition concerns” between public cloud providers Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google that if identified will lead to further action from the regulator.

This examination falls under the Enterprise Act 2002, and is part of a new program to ensure digital communications markets work well for both people and businesses in the U.K., according to Ofcom. “If we find a market is not working well, there can be negative impacts on businesses and ultimately consumers through higher prices, lower service quality, and reduced innovation,” the regulator explained.

Ofcom is looking at the health of the U.K. public cloud services market where the top three hyperscalers together represent around 81% of the market’s annual revenue. Specifically, the regulator will examine the general strength of competition among public cloud services and dig into “the position the three hyperscalers hold in the market.”

VMware is aiming to be the Switzerland of Kubernetes orchestration based on the vendor’s Tanzu philosophy of “bring your own Kubernetes,” Tanzu SVP Edward Hieatt told SDxCentral.

VMware’s updates to the Tanzu Kubernetes portfolio, including Tanzu Application Platform 1.3 integration with Red Hat’s OpenShift Kubernetes platform, fall in line with what Hieatt described as the broader vision of VMware’s Tanzu efforts.

Enterprises today are likely dealing with at least two private and one to three public clouds, driven by “fickle developers picking more and more easy-to-use things out in the wild, and ending up with a big bill from three or four cloud providers, or at least one or two,” he said. And to the enterprise CIO banking on the promises of cloud migrations, a scenario like that doesn’t scream progress.

Microsoft rode its software-as-a-service (SaaS) strength to beat out cloud rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) in capturing the largest share of global public cloud services revenue in 2021, according to IDC.

The research firm reported that Microsoft accumulated 14.4% of the market’s $408.6 billion in revenues, just a whisker ahead of the 13.7% that AWS snared. Microsoft has offerings in all four sections of the public cloud services market lumped by IDC into its report, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), system infrastructure SaaS, and application SaaS.

Salesforce, Google, and SAP rounded out the top five in IDC’s ranking, with those vendors capturing 40% of the total market. Overall market revenues increased 29% compared to 2020.

Broadcom made good on rumors by acquiring VMware in a deal that is set to reshape both companies and the virtualization space.

The deal will see the global chip giant acquire VMware for approximately $61 billion in cash and stock. Broadcom is also assuming around $8 billion in VMware debt. The deal has been approved by each company’s board of directors.

Michael Dell, who owns 40% of VMware’s outstanding shares, threw his support behind the deal. Dell’s interest in VMware is tied to Dell Technologies spinoff of VMware last year.

Broadcom said it expects the deal to close in its 2023 fiscal year. Post-close, Broadcom will rebrand its Software Group as VMware and will transition Broadcom’s existing infrastructure and security software solutions to be part of an expanded VMware portfolio.