Soaring interest in public cloud services has prompted a prediction that a huge $160 billion will be spent in 2018, marking a 23.2 per cent increase over 2017.
The IDC forecast also predicts that public cloud services market will achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate of 21.9 per cent. This would place global public cloud spending at $277 billion in 2021.
Eileen Smith, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis, IDC, said: “The industries that are spending the most – discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking – are the ones that have come to recognize the tremendous benefits that can be gained from public cloud services. Organizations within these industries are leveraging public cloud services to quickly develop and launch 3rd Platform solutions, such as big data and analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), that will enhance and optimize the customer’s journey and lower operational costs.”
Industries expected to lead this spending charge include discrete manufacturing ($19.7bn), professional services ($18.1bn) and banking ($16.7bn). Process manufacturing and retail are also anticipated to surpass the $10 billion mark according to the IDC forecast.
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Richard Best, General Manager at COMPAREX UK, said: “With the United Kingdom one of two countries set to lead public cloud spending in Western Europe, it’s clear that cloud will continue to dominate enterprise IT over the next 12 months. While cloud undoubtedly brings benefits, it also brings new challenges. As the number of ways to pay for and consume cloud proliferates, the complexity of cloud management is deepening. Furthermore, it’s at the point when cloud becomes the default choice that businesses will start to see the ‘cracks’ appear.”
In terms of the fastest spending growth over the five-year forecast period, professional services are set to lead the way with 24.4 per cent, followed by telecommunications and banking with 23.3 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.
“Managing various SLAs, monitoring performance of cloud services not in ‘your’ datacentre, and tracking consumption and cost, become far harder in a public and multi-cloud environment. Businesses must now ensure that, post adoption, they have a layer of control that allows them to optimise their infrastructure and maximise their investment in cloud,” Best said.
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