Cloud 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 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. This growing need for cloud solutions has led to increased spending on hardware and software components needed to support the computing requirements.

Global cloud IT infrastructure spending is expected to grow 3.6% year-on-year, reaching $69.2bn in 2020, according to data gathered by LearnBonds.

Cloud Infrastructure Spending Has Tripled Since 2013

Today, billions of people use personal cloud storage to manage and store private data. However, its ability to provide access to computing power that would otherwise be extremely expensive has seen cloud computing technology spread widely in the business sector, also.

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 and trading platforms.

In 2013, the global spending on cloud IT infrastructure, including hardware, abstracted resources, storage, and network resources, amounted to $22.3bn, revealed Statista data and the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker. Over the next four years, this amount grew to $47.4bn. 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.

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.”

IDC’s five-year forecast predicts cloud IT infrastructure spending will reach $100.1 bn by 2024, growing by a compound annual rate of growth of 8.4%.

Almost 80% of Businesses to Adopt Cloud Technology in 2020

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 $63.97bn 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.

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.