Elly Yates-Roberts |
According to the latest Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide by International Data Corporation (IDC) worldwide spending on public cloud services is predicted to reach US$160 billion in 2018, an increase of 23% compared to 2017.
The industries that are predicted to spend the most on public cloud services are discrete manufacturing (US$19.7 billion), professional services (US$18.1 billion) and banking (US$16.7 billion).
“The industries that are spending the most – discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking – are the ones that have come to recognise the tremendous benefits that can be gained from public cloud services,” said Eileen Smith, IDC’s programme director for Customer Insights and Analysis. “Customer insights and analysis organisations 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 optimise the customer’s journey and lower operational costs.”
Software as a Service (SaaS) is predicted to be the largest cloud computing category, contributing to nearly two thirds of all public cloud spending in 2018. This will be followed by Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
The study also suggests that the US will be the largest market for public cloud services in 2018, with its US$97 billion accounting for over 60% of worldwide spending. The UK and Germany will lead public cloud spending in Western Europe at US$7.9 billion and US$7.4 billion respectively. Japan and China will contribute by spending US$5.8 billion and US$5.4 billion respectively.
IDC predicts that China will experience the fastest growth in public cloud services spending over the next five years (43.2% CAGR).
“Digital transformation is driving multi-cloud and hybrid environments for enterprises to create a more agile and cost-effective IT environment in Asia/Pacific,” said Ashutosh Bisht, research manager, customer insights and analysis. “Even heavily regulated industries like banking and finance are using SaaS for non-core functionality, platform as a service (PaaS) for app development and testing, and IaaS for workload trial runs and testing for their new service offerings. Drivers of IaaS growth in the region include the increasing demand for more rapid processing infrastructure, as well as better data backup and disaster recovery.”