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Global spending on cloud infrastructure services grew by 34 per cent to over US$50 billion during the first three months of 2022, research firms claim.
According to Canalys, spending grew to US$55.9 billion during the quarter, while Synergy Research Group claimed Q1 enterprise spending reached US$53 billion. Both research firms agreed on the same percentage increase.
Of the major players, Amazon Web Services (AWS) retained its number one spot, with both firms agreeing that it made up 33 per cent of the total cloud market. The firms also said the usual suspects of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud trailed behind in second and third, respectively.
Combined, these top three cloud players account for more than 60 per cent of all cloud spending worldwide, with Canalys claiming the figure sits at 62 per cent, while Synergy asserts 65 per cent.
“While the level of competition remains high, the huge and rapidly growing cloud market continues to coalesce around Amazon, Microsoft and Google,” said John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy.
“Aside from the Chinese market, which remains totally dominated by local Chinese companies, other cloud providers simply cannot match the scale and geographic reach of the big three market leaders.
“As Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to grow at 35-to-50 per cent per year, other non-Chinese cloud providers are typically growing in the 10-to-20 per cent range. That can still be an attractive proposition for those smaller providers, as long as they focus on regional or service niches where they can differentiate themselves from the big three.”
Breaking down the market, Synergy stated that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues – which includes infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and hosted private cloud services – were US$52.7 billion, with trailing 12-month revenues reaching US$191 billion.
Additionally, the firm also said public IaaS and PaaS services make up the bulk of the market, with these segments growing by 37 per cent during the period.
According to Canalys, cloud is being picked up by businesses of all sizes in order to combat global supply chain issues, cyber security threats and geopolitical instability.
“Cloud has continued to be a hot market and transformation strategies are emphasising digital resiliency to face the market challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Canalys research analyst Blake Murray.
“To be effective in resiliency planning, customers are turning to channel partners with the technical and consulting skills to help them effectively embrace hyperscaler cloud services.”
Canalys also claimed top cloud partners are focusing their attention towards certification and skills recruitment hyperscaler cloud services.
At the top end of town, global systems integrators, such as Accenture, Atos, Deloitte, HCL Technologies, TCS, Kyndryl, Tech Mahindra and Wipro, have been building out practices with “tens of thousands” of cloud engineers and consultants”, acquiring cloud application development and migration specialists and launching dedicated cloud services brands.
Sitting at the other end of the scale, the firm also said smaller consultants, resellers, service providers and distributors are tapping into similar strategies with mid-market and small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers also demanding cloud adoption support.
“As the use cases for cloud infrastructure services expand so does the potential complexity and we see that hybrid and multi-cloud deployments are commonplace in the market,” said Canalys research analyst Yi Zhang. “The hyperscalers are investing in rapid channel development and partners are responding as the opportunities grow.”
The growth in the cloud market can particularly be felt in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with Synergy previously stating back in March that the fourth quarter of 2021 saw the region account for a third of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market, growing much more rapidly than either the North American or the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regional markets.
