Microsoft closes gap in global cloud infrastructure services

Microsoft has increased its global market share in global cloud infrastructure services for the fourth quarter of 2022. 

According to analyst firm Synergy, the worldwide cloud infrastructure services exceeded US$61 billion worldwide in Q4, with Microsoft Azure claiming 23 per cent of the pie.  

Although Synergy noted that the global rise was US$10 billion from the fourth quarter of last year, it reflected a reduction in the market growth rate.  

In its report, Synergy stated that cloud infrastructure services grew by 21 per cent compared to Q4 of 2021. 

This, however, was “substantially hampered” by the historically strong US dollar and a severely restricted Chinese market, the analyst firm said. 

Global market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) stayed within its long-standing market share band of 32-34 per cent. 

In third place, Google’s share stood at 11 per cent in line with the previous quarter but a percentage point up from a year ago. 

Credit: Synergy

Notably, the leading trio held 73 per cent of the public cloud market. Geographically, the cloud market continues to grow strongly in all regions of the world, Synergy added. 

The analyst firm also claimed that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and hosted private cloud services, were US$61.6 billion, while annual revenue reached US$227 billion.  

Public IaaS and PaaS services grew by 22 per cent in Q4 and account for the lion’s share of the market.  

Synergy added that as economies improve and the foreign exchange market stabilises, the worldwide cloud market will continue to grow strongly over the coming years. 

Microsoft has been slowly creeping up on AWS' cloud dominance for some time. Last year, Canalys claimed that an "interesting battle remains right at the top between AWS and Microsoft”, with both companies aggressively building out capacity.