Blog written by Nick Galov on February 6, 2021. Published on Hosting Tribunal website.

Cloud computing is booming and there are many trends to be discussed. It had astonishing growth last year and is predicted to break its own record in the next few.

These days it's almost impossible to find an organization that doesn't rely at least partially on cloud services. Whether it's application software, operating systems, databases, web servers, IP addresses or virtual local area networks - the cloud seems to offer it all.

The Most Telling Cloud Computing Trends (Editor's Choice):

• The global cloud computing market is forecast to go over $1,025 billion by 2026.
• Cloud initiatives are expected to account for 70% of all tech spending by 2020.
• As much as 80% of organizations are predicted to migrate toward the cloud by 2025.
• In 2018, public cloud adoption grew to 92%.
• IaaS is expected to reach $82 billion worldwide by 2022.
• Serverless had a market share of 50% in 2018, making it the fastest growing extended cloud service.
• As many as 84% of enterprises run on a multi-cloud strategy.

Global Adoption Trends

• Dave Bartoletti from Forrester dubbed 2019 the year of global enterprise adoption of cloud. He and his colleague Lauren Nelson claim cloud computing will be the best way to turn rowdy ideas into functional software.
  (Source: Computerworld UK)
• 80% of organizations are predicted to migrate toward the cloud, hosting, and colocation services by 2025.
  (Source: Computerworld UK)
• 84% of enterprises run on a multi-cloud strategy.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Serverless had 21% adoption in 2018, making it the fastest growing extended cloud service. This shows a 75% relative increase compared to 2017.
  (Source: RightScale)

A cloud-powered future is starting to shape, as more and more enterprises migrate toward remote infrastructure. Managing cloud adoption seems to be one of the companies' top priorities for 2020. It's expected to maintain its status as a priority in the next few years too. A boom of new cloud services is, therefore, imminent.

But why is cloud computing so popular?

Well, it enables both users and enterprises to run software without installing it, offers redundancy, stability, and security. Cloud computing eliminates the problem of buying and maintaining hardware.

The cloud also gives us the opportunity to access content from basically anywhere. Generally, it is more affordable, which makes it suitable for businesses of any size. Naturally, there are cloud products designed for businesses of any size.

When it comes to technical expertise, certain services give maximum control to the end users, but for those who don't have the resources to employ system administrators, managed cloud services are an excellent solution

See?

Cloud computing growth is inevitable.

Cloud Computing Revenue Is Rising

With big growth comes big investment. It seems like cloud computing revenue is going to shoot through the roof in 2020.

• The global cloud computing market is forecast to exceed $350 billion this year. This is a 18% rise since 2018 and the impressive CAGR is bound to continue.
  (Source: MarketsandMarkets)
• According to research and predictions, cloud expenses are expected to amount to 70% of all tech spending by 2020.
  (Source: Trend Micro)

Public Cloud Usage Is Growing

• Public cloud is a computing service that is offered by third-party providers for free or fee. It is available to anyone willing to use it. More and more enterprises are turning to the public cloud.
• Public cloud spend is growing 3 times faster than its private counterpart. The first marks a 24% growth, while the latter - just 8%.
  (Source: RightScale)
• In 2018, public cloud adoption reached 92%. It was 89% the year before.
  (Source: RightScale)
• 50% of enterprises spend more than $1.2 million a year for public cloud service, while another 13% spend the astonishing $12 million for the same amount of time.
  (Source: RightScale)
• According to Bartoletti, now 60% of North American enterprises use public cloud platforms. Five years ago, this was at just 12%.
  (Source: Computerworld UK)
• 41% of enterprises are expected to rely on public cloud platforms by 2020.
  (Source: Forbes)
• 94% of enterprise workloads will be cloud-based in 2021.
  (Source: CISCO)

IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Continue to Grow

SaaS is already contributing to a big part of the quarterly revenues of software vendors. Usage of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS is expected to increase dramatically in the following years.

• IaaS services like cloud storage is expected to reach $82 billion worldwide by 2022.
  (Source: Gartner)
• Research by KPMG shows PaaS investment grew to 56% in 2019. This is a 24% increase since 2016.
  (Source: Forbes)
• In 2020, SaaS is predicted to grow with an 18% CAGR, according to a quote by Bain & Company.
  (Source: Forbes)
• SaaS now contributes $20 billion to the quarterly revenues of software vendors. The number is expected to grow with 32% each year.
  (Source: Trend Micro)

What About Private and Hybrid Cloud?

Hybrid cloud strategies are preferred by companies. Hybrid cloud usage is expected to grow in the next years. Meanwhile, private cloud usage fell with 2% in 2019 and there's no growth predicted for the next year.

• In 2018, private cloud adoption grew to 75%. That's a 3% increase in absolute terms since 2017.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Private cloud adoption fell to 72% in 2019, according to cloud computing trends.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Hybrid strategy utilization grew to 58% in 2019. That's a 7% increase since 2018. In comparison, the usage of multiple public and private clouds has declined.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Cloud technology trends show 28% of companies prefer hybrid cloud strategies. Public and private clouds are used equally by 17% of companies.
  (Source: RightScale)
• By 2020, 22% of enterprise workloads will be handled by hybrid cloud platforms.
  (Source: Forbes)

Cloud Computing Companies Growth Trends for 2021

In 2018, AWS marked significant growth. Azure usage also grew, especially among enterprises. Oracle, IBM, and Google Clouds were also adopted by many companies.

In 2019, the AWS adoption fell by 1%, while the rest of the cloud computing services' adoption continues to grow.

• In 2018, AWS was utilized by 64% of cloud users. That number was at just 57% a year earlier.
  (Source: RightScale)
• AWS was used by 68% of enterprises in 2018.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Azure's cloud adoption rates reached 45% among users and 68% among enterprises in 2018.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Oracle also saw some growth, as in 2018 it was servicing 10% of all enterprises.
  (Source: RightScale)
• IBM cloud usage trends show its popularity among enterprises grew from 10% to 15% between 2017 and 2018.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Cloud computing trends show the adoption of Google Cloud grew from 15% in 2017 to 19% in 2018.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Azure adoption jumped to 52% in 2019.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Among enterprises, Azure's usage reached 60% in 2019.
  (Source: RightScale)
• AWS' adoption among enterprises fell down by 1% in 2019.
  (Source: RightScale)
• VMware vSphere has a 50% adoption of the private cloud in 2019.
  (Source: RightScale)
• Cloud computing growth is visible in IBM's cloud solution, which grew to 18%, Oracle's to 16%, and Alibaba to 4%.
  (Source: RightScale)
• According to Forrester, cloud computing trends show the growth of the six big public cloud providers' (AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, Alibaba, and Oracle) will continue in 2020.
  (Source: Lastline)

Cloud Computing Security Trends

Cyber security becomes and increasingly big spend for many organizations. Well-designed cloud infrastructure mitigates some vulnerabilities but the growing amount of users increase risks accordingly.

• Cloud computing market estimates more than half of organizations do not have a system for monitoring, managing or securing cloud applications.
  (Source: Lastline)
• In 2020, 99% of the abused vulnerabilities will have already been known to security and IT professionals for at least a year.
  (Source: Forbes)
• As more and more enterprises are starting to use the cloud, cybersecurity threats will increase.
  (Source: Forbes)

Cloud Computing Trends in IT

• IDC claims that by 2020, cloud-based IT spending will reach 60% of all spending on IT infrastructure and 60-70% of all software, services and technology spending.
  (Source: Forbes)
• 68% of enterprises consider optimizing and managing an important responsibility of central IT, while 62% place high importance on deciding and advising which apps to run on which platform. Finally, 59% consider setting policies for cloud usage to be vitally important.
  (Source: RightScale)

As it is clear to see, cloud computing isn't going anywhere soon.

Global cloud computing trends show us that in 2019, public cloud adoption grew. IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS continue to grow as well. Private cloud use, on the other hand, declined a tad.

Azure usage is also growing, while AWS' continues to be steady ahead without drastic changes.

Cloud computing forecasts for 2021 show a further increase in cloud usage. Cloud initiatives will amount to 70% of all tech spending by 2020.

More and more enterprises are adopting the cloud - and for good reason. It is cheaper, easier to manage and an overall safer option, compared to the alternatives. As a result, cloud computing trends give plenty of reason for optimism for this industry's future.