Imagine shopping without leaving your home; trying on clothes without stepping into a store; or attending a concert while staying a meter away. That’s what the metaverse promises, a change in the way we interact.

The term “metaverse” has likely raised many questions in recent years, especially since Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of the social networking site Facebook, announced it as the name of his next major tech project.

What is the Metaverse?

The word “metaverse” is a compound acronym consisting of ‘meta’, a term derived from Greek meaning “beyond” or “after”, and ‘verse’ referring to “universe”. It represents a new ecosystem where users can interact with each other, work, play, study, conduct economic transactions, and much more virtually. Zuckerberg even renamed Facebook to Meta to emphasize the project’s significance to his tech conglomerate, which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, among others.

When discussing the metaverse, it’s crucial to understand that it doesn’t refer to a specific platform or brand but to the concept of a virtual space. As we currently differentiate between the digital and physical worlds or online and offline, the metaverse blurs these boundaries, merging virtual and real environments.

What Can I Do in the Metaverse?

Developers aim for users to contribute ideas and implement them in the metaverse as technology evolves. It is poised to be the evolution of the current internet, leading to significant changes in our consumption and social interactions.

Work: Zuckerberg envisions it as a workplace where people gather in virtual spaces as if they were physically present, equipped with tools for meetings, work, presentations, and more.

Entertainment: Attend concerts and feel as if sharing the space with artists and audiences without leaving your living room.

Shopping: Although online shopping exists, the metaverse enhances this experience, with user avatars trying on clothes virtually.

How Will Cloud Impact New Realities?

Cloud computing underpins the metaverse, necessitating extensive storage and powerful processing capabilities. Devices accessing the metaverse will connect to servers housed in data centers. The cloud platform must scale its power as demand grows, leading to two potential growth areas:

Data centers enabling the metaverse.

Businesses operating within the metaverse.

Cloud’s Bet

Not fully operational yet, but two possible models are emerging:

Public Cloud and Pay-as-You-Go Models: Offering on-demand resources and global presence, and reducing latency for a realistic user experience.

Private Cloud and Managed Services: Less common but another viable option.

Capitalizing on Metaverse Opportunities

Companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Epic Games, Salesforce, Workday, and Oracle are developing apps and tools for this new virtual universe. Businesses from various sectors are exploring opportunities presented by the metaverse, fostering a new financial ecosystem grounded in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Examples include Nike’s Nikeland in Roblox, BMW’s plans for virtual factory replicas, and Metaverse Property selling and managing virtual real estate. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are integral to the metaverse’s economy, purchasable, sellable, and displayable in virtual worlds.

The metaverse presents a vast business market. Its experimental nature might intimidate large companies, but the stakes in this new model are high.