cloud

21 Cloud Computing Statistics Transforming the Tech Industry

Posted on |

Well, she’s walking through the clouds 

With a circus mind that’s running wild

Jimi Hendrix

Cloud computing is undoubtedly one of the 21st century’s most significant innovations. To help you come to grips with the industry’s scope, we’re going to look at the latest cloud computing trends and reveal all about cloud computing. 

So, without further ado, let’s fly up in the sky and see what the cloud computing statistics show us.

The Most Exciting Cloud Computing Facts (Editor’s Choice)

  • Cloud storage statistics show that 85% of enterprises keep all of their sensitive data on the cloud.
  • In 2021, the revenue of the public cloud market is expected to reach $338,808 million
  • The spending on cloud infrastructure for Q2 2020 surpassed $30 billion.
  • The hybrid cloud market size will reach $97 billion by 2023.
  • In 2021, the Google Cloud Platform market share reached 9%
  • The hosting, cloud computing, and hosting storage market will grow up to $163 billion by the end of 2021.
  • As per the cloud adoption statistics, up to 74% of CFOs say that cloud computing significantly impacted their businesses in 2017.

 General Facts About Cloud Computing

cloud computing statistics

1. Up to 74% of CFOs say cloud computing significantly impacted their businesses in 2017.

(Source: Monsoon Blockchain Storage)

Cloud computing takes first place in technologies that significantly impact businesses. Some of the other technologies that had a significant financial impact on businesses are the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and 3D printing.

2. 85% of enterprises keep all of their sensitive data on the cloud. 

(Source: PR News Wire)

The amount of data confirms the cloud’s importance and security. Safety is quite a significant concern for every business. So, 85% of data is stored in the cloud, 50% is held in big data, and about 33% in IoT. 

3. Cloud computing industry analysis shows that more than one-third of organizations consider cloud investments a top three investing priority.

(Source: Gartner)

Around 30% of companies shifted from cloud-first to cloud-only in 2019. It refers to the usage of license-based software consumption, which is expected to plummet further. In contrast, subscription-based cloud consumption models and SaaS continue to rise. 

What’s more:

By 2022, organizations will spend 28% of the cloud budgets on cloud-related services, such as cloud consulting, implementation, managed services, and migration. Share on X

4. 93% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy. 

(Source: Flexera)

While the multi-cloud strategy takes first place, about 87% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Cloud statistics further reveal about 2.2 public and 2.2 private clouds are used. The top three cloud providers are Azure, AWS, and Google. The first on the list is AWS, while Azure is close to getting to AWS in numbers.

5. Spending on cloud infrastructure for Q2 2020 was beyond $30 billion. 

(Source: Chanel Asia)

According to cloud computing statistics for 2020, half of all customer spending went to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud services. The percentage growth has been going down, though, while incremental growth in absolute dollar terms has remained the same. 

Now:

Compared to Q2 2019, cloud infrastructure investment increased by more than $7.5 billion. The trend of increasing investments into cloud spending is expected to continue well into the future.

6. 84% of companies were worried about cloud security throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

(Source: Solutions Review)

Up to 96% of cloud engineers switched to working from home due to COVID-19. 

At the same time, most cloud professionals were anxious about security during the shift. Cloud infrastructure became more vulnerable because of the adoption of new policies, networks, and remote management devices. 

7. The average annual cost of a data breach is $3.86 million. 

(Source: Top 10 Website Hosting)

One of the main advantages of cloud computing is security. That’s why more and more businesses are choosing to implement it. 

However, the technology is constantly changing, as is the number of cyberattacks and data breaches. According to the cloud security statistics, 34% of data breaches come from phishing attacks, and the average enterprise is experiencing a worrying 23 cloud-related threads in one month.  

8. Every single day, an average person uses 36 cloud-related services. 

(Source: Top 10 Website Hosting)

Cloud computing growth is robust. Recent cloud usage statistics show us that around 77% of enterprises use at least one application in the cloud. Experts suggest businesses will shift from traditional software to SaaS, which will bring higher cloud usage in the next few years.

But it’s not all good news:

9. By 2025, up to 90% of organizations that can’t control public cloud use will inadvertently share sensitive data.

(Source: Gartner)

According to the latest cloud computing US statistics, valuable data on the cloud can be exposed easily. 

Here’s why:

Most of the time, organizations are left with plenty of unsanctioned, unrecognized, public cloud use.

Cloud Service Models 

10. If the Software as a Service (SaaS) market continues to grow at the current rate, it will reach a total value of $623 billion in 2023. 

(Source: Finances Online)

The SaaS market size sector has a CAGR of 18%, and SaaS stats suggest it will reach an eye-watering value of $623 billion by 2023

The thing is:

More and more companies are planning to switch to SaaS because it’s more accessible and flexible. According to SaaS statistics from 2018, the average business spends $343,000 on the service.  

11. By 2027, the IaaS market size will reach $201 billion. 

(Source: Allied Market Research)

Even though Infrastructure as a Service will grow in the following years, the overall IaaS market share will likely fall due to the rise of the Platform as a Service market. In 2020, the PaaS market size was $43.8 million, which currently makes it the smallest segment among the three main public cloud services on the cloud market.

Types of Clouds

12. In 2021, the revenue of the public cloud market is expected to reach $338,808 million. 

(Source: Statista)

Public cloud market share revenue is generated by the three main services of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. The top public cloud providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. 

But that’s not all:

Other public cloud companies that provide quality cloud services are IBM, Alibaba Cloud, and SalesForce. The latest cloud computing statistics reveal that the US generates around half of the public cloud revenue, around $172,136 million in 2021.

13. According to the Everest Group survey, 58% of enterprises think that the private cloud is a great investment idea. 

(Source: TCS)

Even though the financial services cloud adoption rate of the hybrid cloud approach is high, there are still many that are using private clouds. The private cloud market size is approximately $42 billion

14. The hybrid cloud market size is expected to reach $97 billion by 2023. 

(Source: Markets and Markets)

The hybrid cloud has gained momentum over the last few years because they’re cost-effective, more secure, and agile. 

What’s more:

Hybrid clouds serve as a bridge between businesses and IT, giving them agility, efficiency and technological solutions at a low cost. Cloud computing statistics show us that a single business who uses cloud computing is much more successful at managing its data.

15. By 2022, the cloud services market size and growth will be nearly three times that of IT services in general. 

(Source: Gartner)

The revenue forecast for cloud computing services includes the following numbers for 2022

Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS) revenue will hit $61.1 billion. Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS) will reach up to $31.8 billion

That being said:

Cloud Application Services (SaaS) is set to outdo both, with up to $143.7 billion. Cloud Management and Security Services should bring in around $17.9 billion, while Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS) will reach $76.6 billion.

Compared to the total revenue in 2018 ($182.4 billion), cloud computing growth statistics are quite promising, forecasting up to $331.4 billion in revenue for 2022

The total cloud computing revenue between 2018 and 2022 is the following: 

Cloud computing statistics for 2019 show the revenue was $214.3 billion; in 2020$249.8 billion. In 2021, it’s predicted to reach $289.1 billion.

Top Cloud Companies

16. Amazon Web Services dominates the biggest cloud providers, with a 32% market share in Q4 2020. 

(Source: Statista)

Amazon launched AWS in 2008. However, the tech giant didn’t invent the cloud because the term cloud computing has been around for quite some time. As to when did the cloud start, we can’t be certain, though. The term is mentioned in 1996, but the concept of cloud computing dates from the 1960s

The thing is:

Since Amazon was the first to offer cloud computing infrastructure as a service, it established itself as one of the largest cloud computing companies and leader in the cloud infrastructure. 

According to the Synergy Research Group, the AWS market share is 32% and still growing. 

As to who uses AWS, the list is long: 

Some of the most prominent users are Netflix, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Adobe. 

17. Microsoft Azure’s revenue grew by 72% between 2018 and 2019. 

(Source: Business Quant)

In 2015, Microsoft Azure’s total revenue was $880 million, skyrocketing to $13 billion in 2019. The latest 2021 Azure statistics show that with 20% of the market share, the company is the second among cloud computing leaders, just after AWS but well ahead of the competition. 

18. In 2021, the Google Cloud Platform market share reached 9%. 

(Source: Statista & ZDnet)

In 2021, the Google Cloud Platform established itself as third among the biggest cloud companies in the world. Its revenue in 2020 was $13 billion, with a significant increase thanks to Google Meet. 

But even though Google Cloud is the third biggest in the cloud computing industry, the company doesn’t give much priority to the platform. This is understandable because Google is more focused on its search engine and YouTube, which bring higher annual revenue.   

Emerging Cloud Computing Trends

19. The global cloud computing market size and share will reach $1025.9 billion by 2026.

(Source: Globe News Wire)

The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% until 2026. According to global cloud computing statistics, North America had the largest share in 2019, with hybrid cloud computing the dominant segment.

20. The global public cloud infrastructure market will grow by 35%, reaching $120 billion in 2021.

(Source: CRN)

According to the latest predictions, the pandemic will have an effect on increasing cloud infrastructure usage in 2021 and beyond. 

Forecasts for 2021 state that there will be a reshuffling of the top cloud providers, with China’s Alibaba taking the number three spot on the list, placing Google Cloud one spot down on the list.

21. Observability is the fastest growing trend in Cloud Computing

The observability market, valued at $278M in 2022, is projected to surge to $2B by 2026, marking it the fastest-growing cloud computing sector. 90% of IT professionals recognize its strategic importance, with observability leaders experiencing a 69% improvement in issue resolution and unplanned downtime. Some even reduced resolution time by 83% with improved observability pipelines and data stream processing.

FAQ 

Q: How big is the cloud?

The exact capacity of the cloud is not known, but it’s assumed to be at least one exabyte, which is equal to 1073741824 gigabytes. One of the many known cloud computing facts is that cloud service companies are very secretive about their computing hosting storage because they are afraid of giving the competition an advantage.

Q: What percentage of companies use cloud computing?

Around 94% of companies use cloud computing one way or another. Most of the companies using cloud computing usually adopt a multi-cloud strategy. However, many businesses still use private or public clouds.

Q: Which company has the largest market share in cloud computing?

Among the cloud computing companies, AWS has the largest cloud market share in 2021, 32%. It’s 12% in front of second-placed Microsoft Azure, and its share is still growing. 

Q: Has cloud computing hit its peak?

The growth of cloud computing was visible during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but we can’t be certain that the cloud industry has already hit its peak. Cloud computing statistics suggest the sector will keep growing in the future and open many businesses opportunities.

Conclusion

Looking at these cloud computing facts, we’re left with only one conclusion: 

Cloud computing is here to stay, as more and more new cloud technologies and new cloud services are being rolled out regularly.

Additionally, our technical capabilities are ever-increasing, and there are very few reasons, mostly tied to security, that would be an argument against adopting more cloud computing services. 

Convenience is undoubtedly a very influential factor for most users, both business and individuals.

Bottom line:

IT plays an important role in our world, as data has gained entirely new importance over the last decade or so as the “internet’s currency.” Cloud computing is the future, as cloud computing statistics tell us and, quite honestly, already the present.

So, it looks like we’re all walking through the clouds.

Fly on, little wing!

Sources: