IDC: WW Public Cloud Spending to Reach $160bn in 2018

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According to IDC global spending on public cloud services and infrastructure will reach $160 billion in 2018-- a 23.2% increase over 2017. The analyst adds spending over the 2016-2021 period will reach a CAGR of 21.9%, with public cloud spending totaling $277bn in 2021.

Public cloud spending

The industries spending most on public cloud services in 2018 are discrete manufacturing ($19.7bn), professional services ($18.1bn) and banking ($16.7bn). The process manufacturing and retail industries are expected to spend over $10bn each on public cloud service in 2018. These 5 industries remain at the top in 2021 due to continued investment in public cloud solutions. The industries with the fastest spending growth over the 2016-2021 period are professional services (24.4% CAGR), telecommunications (23.3% CAGR), and banking (23.0% CAGR).

"The industries that are spending the most-- discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking-- are the ones that have come to recognise the tremendous benefits that can be gained from public cloud services," IDC says. "Organisations within these industries are leveraging public cloud services to quickly develop and launch 3rd Platform solutions, such as big data and analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), that will enhance and optimize the customer's journey and lower operational costs."

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the biggest cloud computing category of 2018, capturing nearly 66% of all public cloud spending. SaaS spending is comprised of applications and system infrastructure software (SIS), and is dominated by applications purchases making over 50% of all public cloud services spending through 2019. Enterprise resource management (ERM) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications see the most spending in 2018, followed by collaborative applications and content applications.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the 2nd biggest public cloud spending category in 2018, with balanced spending as server spending trends "slightly ahead" storage spending. Platform as a Service (PaaS) follows, with spending led by data management software. Also seeing healthy spending in 2018 are application platforms, integration and orchestration middleware, and data access, analysis and delivery applications.

Go IDC WW Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide