Garter predicts worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will jump from $242.6B in 2019 to $692.1B in 2025. Not only that, but spending on SaaS cloud services is predicted to attain 19.3% growth between 2021 and 2022.
COVID-19 created an immediate need for remote workers in the digital space. This led to rising demands for more cloud resources, as scaling became a necessity and the acceleration of cloud adoption became the norm. Although 2020 saw a peak in cloud migration, the trend continues this year, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.
Edge computing and virtualization are speedily moving into the mainstream, pushing companies to spend more on cloud services than ever before. However, the pressure remains the same: moving complex workloads and growing a remote and hybrid workforce are still the biggest challenges that CIOs face today.
The question remains: What are the cloud services market predictions for the upcoming year?
Read this article to find out more.
Five cloud services predictions
1. Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers are helping organizations to continue their business, as usual, no matter the disruptions and the new work-from-home trends. Today, PaaS services are on the rise, pushed by the growing demand for cloud-native, containerized cloud platforms.
Also known as cloud application infrastructure services, PaaS includes hardware and software tools. As companies modernize their traditional applications, Gartner predicts that the PaaS market is expected to grow by 26.6 percent in 2021. This also comes as a response to remote employees’ demand of accessing a content-rich infrastructure that would improve their performance and productivity.
2. Multicloud
As more companies move their workloads to the cloud, new requirements for new and diverse processes continue to evolve.
Nowadays, there is an average of 3.4 public clouds and 3.9 private clouds being deployed per company, which allows organizations to tailor their capabilities and requirements. Research also shows that more organizations will develop cloud-native applications from now on, becoming empowered to do so by having a deep understanding of their specific needs and the cloud industry as well.
Multicloud strategies that are developed by companies focus on functionality and also on risk mitigation.
3. Open partner ecosystems
The latest developments and changes due to the pandemic have significantly impacted business relationships. And notable changes are seen between large technology providers and strategic partners. At the same time, Big tech organizations—such as Amazon, Microsoft, or Google—are challenged by legislative pressure, being accused of stopping their competition while creating new partner ecosystems.
Today, cloud providers are key allies, and vendors are evaluated for innovation rather than for their potential revenue.
4. The growth of public cloud
Enterprise cloud spending increased more than 34.4% since 2019, according to IDC. Both private and public clouds experienced growth, while other IT expenses have significantly declined for many companies.
Today, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and other leading public cloud providers have shown their dominance over the cloud market, expanding services across the globe and a vast number of industries. What’s more, Deloitte’s predictions indicate that the revenue growth will continue in the upcoming years, and global cloud spending will grow faster than different IT spending.
5. Intelligent-edge platforms
The pandemic caused a rapid shift to remote work, generating a massive use of mobile devices, autonomous vehicles, AI-powered applications, and IoT devices and platforms. This, in turn, triggered the need for low latencies, which intelligent-edge platforms can deliver, and public cloud providers are ready to supply.
What is more, the demand for cloud-to-edge applications will only increase due to the growing popularity of 5G. Leading companies like IBM are planning to invest more in strategic and agile 5G/edge/AI platforms in the near future.
Conclusion
Today, companies take advantage of the cloud’s scalability, reach, and economy. This trend is predicted to stay the same in the upcoming years, as organizations have discovered the various ways in which cloud is valuable to any business, especially when it comes to overcoming the negative impacts of a pandemic—that are still being seen around the world.
