Cloud Insight

Cloud Services Trends & Statistics: What Does It All Mean?

13 Aug

Cloud services have been growing at a steady pace in the last several years. With more and more businesses turning to the cloud to improve efficiency, executives are trying to determine if the cloud is right for them and what services to utilize. We’ll share some recent cloud statistics and what it means for the world of cloud computing.

The cloud market is growing, and by the end of 2015 spending on end-user cloud services could reach $180B. By the end of this year it’s predicted that businesses will spend between $15B-$20B on cloud services, accounting for nearly 10% of the cloud market. What does this tell us? It tells us that consumers and businesses alike are turning to the cloud more and more. People like the idea of provisioning applications and storage services as needed while having the ability to access their data from anywhere. Not only that, they enjoy the cost savings the cloud provides.

To that point, 82% of businesses report having saved money by moving to the cloud and more than 60% of businesses utilize the cloud currently. Another stat is that of the decreasing size of IT departments. Depending on which side of the fence you’re on this could be seen as a positive or a negative. 14% of companies reduced manpower in their IT departments as a result of moving to the cloud. In terms of operational efficiency this is certainly a positive aspect for business.

Now, does the cloud really improve things that much? 80% of businesses say yes. Eight out of ten businesses report operational improvements within the first six months after moving to the cloud. A quarter of businesses that use the cloud use it mainly for data storage and protection. This allows businesses to store more data over time at a lesser cost while keeping their data secure. There are a lot of businesses using the cloud for storage, thus creating a plethora of data. It is estimated that over 1 Exabytes of storage lives in the cloud. An Exabyte is equivalent to 1 Million Terabytes (TBs) or 1 Billion Gigabytes (GBs). Now that’s a lot of data!

When it comes to workloads 2014 marks a year of firsts. 2014 will be the first year that a majority of workloads will be processed in the cloud. 51% of workloads will be processed in the cloud to 49% in the typical IT space. While the difference does not seem large, and isn’t by traditional statistical standards, this is very telling. It proves that more and more businesses are trusting the cloud with their critical operations. This a big deal by many standards, as trust has always been the biggest concern of the cloud. Can a business trust the cloud with their data? How can we trust that the cloud will prove more efficient than we already are? No longer do businesses and end-users alike have to worry whether or not the cloud is the right choice as it becomes more evident that it actually is. Not to mention that 56% trust that their information and data is safe and secure in the cloud.

Of course, we spoke of cost savings earlier in this article, and have spoken on it many times. Not only does the cloud improve operational efficiency it also saves companies money. Currently, six in then businesses include cloud spending as part of their enterprise-wide IT budget. Previously, most companies would break this spending out , whereas only about 30% of businesses do so now.

So, in the end, what do these statistics tell us? They tell us that the cloud is becoming quite a force, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down any time soon. This is especially true for North American enterprises as almost 60% of new spending on the cloud is from North American companies. The cloud provides a lot of major benefits including increased efficiency, cost-savings, security, and increased storage among many other things. They say stats don’t lie, and here we’re finding that to be true. The cloud is here, and it’s here to stay.

*Statistics found at SiliconAngle