Global computing has surged in recent years, changing the way people communicate, manage data and do business. Billions of private and business users take advantage of the on-demand technology.
However, with coronavirus lockdown rules in place and millions of people spending more time indoors and online, the global demand for cloud services has soared over the last few months, according to industry experts.
This growing need for cloud solutions has led to increased spending on hardware and software components needed to support the computing requirements.
The global cloud IT infrastructure spending has tripled since 2013 as billions use personal cloud storage to manage and store private data.
The examples of cloud computing use can be found practically everywhere, from social networking, messaging apps, and streaming services to business processes, office tools, chatbots, or lending platforms.
Owing to a surge in demand, the industry is expected to grow 3.6 per cent year-on-year to hit $69.2 billion by the end of 2020, according to data gathered by LearnBonds.
In 2013, the global spending on cloud IT infrastructure, including hardware, abstracted resources, storage, and network resources, amounted to $22.3 billion, revealed Statista data and the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker.
Over the next four years, this amount grew to $47.4 billion. The trend has continued to grow strongly so that global cloud IT infrastructure spending has tripled since 2013.
IDC`s report revealed that public cloud infrastructure spending is expected to drive the global market growth this year.
Research director of Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies at IDC, Kuba Stolarski said: "As enterprise IT budgets tighten through the year, the public cloud will see an increase in demand for services."
According to a global CIO survey, public cloud adoption was the key draw for many companies in 2020, with 79% of polled groups planning to make heavy to moderate adoption of cloud technology. AI/machine learning ranked as the second-most wanted technology, with 72% of firms planning to use it in 2020.
Statistics show that 70% of businesses plan to adopt private cloud solutions this year, followed by 63% of companies who prefer multi-cloud solutions.
"This increase will come in part from the surge of work-from-home employees using online collaboration tools, but also from workload migration to the public cloud as enterprises seek ways to save money for the current year. Once the coast is clear of the coronavirus, we expect some of this new cloud service demand to remain sticky going forward," he added.
IDC's five-year forecast predicts cloud IT infrastructure spending will reach $100 billion by 2024, growing by a compound annual rate of growth of 8.4%.
The growing need for cloud solutions recently has led to a surge in the vendor revenue from cloud IT infrastructure. In 2019, they made a $63.97 billion profit from selling these IT products and solutions, 30% more compared to 2017 figures.
The 2019 data also showed that ODM Direct held 32% of the market. Dell Technologies and HPE follow with 16% and 11.7% market share, respectively, it added