Digital Lifescapes

Gartner's latest worldwide IT spending forecast exposes a trend every CIO has already felt in budget negotiations. Total spending will climb 14.2 percent in 2026, reaching $6.37 trillion. It seems that the IT infrastructure market is simply having a strong year. However, the more useful insight is how unevenly that growth is distributed. The Headline Number vs. The Real Story Data center systems and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are absorbing capital at a pace several multiples faster than devices, communications services, and traditional IT services. This is not incremental growth spread across a healthy portfolio. It is a wholesale reallocation of enterprise technology budgets toward AI infrastructure, made on the expectation that demand for AI workloads will justify the outlay before that demand has been fully proven. Where the Money is Going Data center systems are forecast to grow 62.5 percent in 2026, that's up from 51.6 percent growth in 2025, reaching $822 billion....

For years, the cloud computing sector operated on an elegant premise: compute and storage were borderless commodities, and scale wins. The hyperscalers built empires on that assumption.  But a confluence of geopolitical friction, data nationalism, and hard-learned lessons about digital dependency is now rewriting that traditional rulebook. Gartner's latest market study found worldwide sovereign cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) spending will reach $80 billion in 2026 — that's a 35.6 percent surge from 2025 — climbing further to $110 billion by 2027. This is a structural shift in how governments, enterprises, and critical infrastructure operators think about where their data lives, who controls it, and what national interests it serves. Sovereign Cloud Market Development The regional breakdown is where the real strategic intelligence lies. China leads all markets at an estimated $47 billion in 2026, underscoring that state-driven infrastructure investment is a long-establ...

The business technology landscape is undergoing a continued shift in IT infrastructure. The public cloud, once a fringe player, has become the undisputed engine driving IT innovation and digital business growth. As executives grapple with their digital transformation initiatives, scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency remain paramount. The public cloud delivers on all these fronts, and Gartner's recent forecast underscores this reality. Worldwide public cloud end-user spending is projected to reach $675 billion in 2024, a significant increase from  $561 billion in 2023. This growth is driven by Generative AI (GenAI) and software application modernization. Public Cloud Computing Market Development Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This foundational layer, comprising compute, storage, and networking resources, is anticipated to reach $180 billion in 2024. This underscores the continued demand for core cloud infrastructure as organizations migrate workloads and application...

Enterprise leaders will have invested nearly $16 billion worldwide in Generative AI (GenAI) solutions in 2023, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This spending, which includes GenAI software as well as related infrastructure hardware and IT or business services, is expected to reach $143 billion in 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.3 percent over the 2023-2027 forecast period. Note that this is more than twice the rate of growth in overall current AI investment, and almost 13 times greater than the CAGR for worldwide IT spending over the same period. Generative AI Market Development "Generative AI is more than a fleeting trend or mere hype. It is a transformative technology with far-reaching implications and business impact," said Ritu Jyoti, group vice president at IDC . With ethical and responsible implementation, GenAI solutions are poised to reshape industries -- changing the way we work, play, and interact wit...

Most digital transformation is enabled by cloud solutions. Worldwide spending on public cloud services is forecast to reach $1.35 trillion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Although annual spending growth is expected to slow slightly over the 2023-2027 forecast period, the market is forecast to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9 percent. "Cloud now dominates tech spending across infrastructure, platforms, and applications," said Eileen Smith, vice president at IDC . Public Cloud Services Market Development IDC believes that most organizations have adopted the public cloud as a cost-effective platform for hosting enterprise applications, and for developing and deploying customer-facing solutions. Looking forward, the cloud computing model remains well positioned to serve customer needs for innovation in application development and deployment -- including as data, artificial intelligence ...

Global demand for public cloud computing services continue to grow. Worldwide revenue for the public cloud services market totaled $545.8 billion in 2022 -- that's an increase of 22.9 percent over 2021, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Software as a Service (SaaS) applications continued to be the largest source of public cloud services revenue by far, accounting for more than 45 percent of the total in 2022. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) was the second largest revenue category with 21.2 percent of the total, while Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service System Infrastructure Software (SaaS SIS) delivered 17 percent and 16.7 percent respectively. Public Cloud Services Market Development "Given the economic challenges of the past year, it's easy to conclude that we are in a period where a focus on constraining new expenditures and optimizing the use of existing cloud assets will dominate CIOs' pri...

Across the globe, many CEOs invested in initiatives to expand their digital offerings. User experience enhancements that are enabled by business technology were a priority in many industries. Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 21.7 percent to a total of $597.3 billion in 2023 -- that's up from $491 billion in 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Cloud computing is driving the next phase of digital transformation, as organizations pursue disruption through technologies like generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web3, and enterprise Metaverse. Public Cloud Computing Market Development "Hyperscale cloud providers are driving the cloud agenda," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . Organizations view cloud computing as a highly strategic platform for digital transformation initiatives, which requires providers to offer new capabilities as the competition for digital business escalates. "For example, generativ...

The senior executive's quest for meaningful and substantive digital business transformation in the Asia-Pacific region has gained new momentum in 2022. Expectations for digital business model growth are fueling the demand for innovation. Business leaders are considering the next advancement of cloud computing adoption in terms of technology and services to reap benefits beyond cost reduction and IT team productivity, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Multi-Cloud Market Development "With the multi-cloud environment becoming more manageable, organizations are loving the openness towards having workload portability and getting the best out of their cloud strategy without worrying about challenges of complexities, vendor lock-in, data privacy or governance," said Shahnawas Latiff, research manager at IDC . Organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are already experiencing a transformation from a technology and services implementation...

Cloud computing adoption continues to gain momentum across the globe. The public cloud services (PCS) market in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) will reach $165.2 billion in 2026, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC expects the Asia-Pacific market to grow at a higher year-over-year (YoY) rate in 2022 at 31.4 percent, in comparison to 30 percent in 2021, as cloud migration continues to accelerate. However, IDC expects the YoY growth rates to slow down beginning from 2023 with a YoY growth of 28.3 percent to 22.4 percent in 2026. Asia-Pacific Cloud Services Market Development "Majority of organizations have pivoted rapidly toward a digital-centric modus operandi to adapt to new ways of operating, working, and selling products and services amid various disruptions," said Estelle Quek, senior research manager at IDC . These organizations demand better business outcomes from their adoption of digital technologies to increase efficiency, ...

The leading organizations that create a digital transformation plan will gain the most from their use of public cloud computing. However, some CIO and CTO leaders still struggle with how to build a modern cloud migration strategy. The worldwide cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market grew 41.4 percent in 2021, to a total of $90.9 billion -- that's up from $64.3 billion in 2020, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "The IaaS market continues to grow unabated as cloud-native becomes the primary architecture for modern workloads," said Sid Nag, vice president and analyst at Gartner . Cloud IaaS Market Development Cloud supports the scalability and composability that advanced technologies and applications require, while also enabling enterprise leaders to address emerging needs such as sovereignty, data integration, and enhanced customer experience. In 2021, the top five IaaS providers accounted for over 80 percent of the market. Amazon AWS conti...

Given the trend thus far, quantum computing developments will be slow and steady. Meanwhile, optimistic growth projections abound. Enterprise spending for quantum computing will grow from $412 million in 2020 to $8.6 billion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This represents a 6-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.9 percent over the 2021-2027 forecast period. The forecast includes core quantum computing as a service, as well as enabling and adjacent quantum computing as a service. IDC states that major breakthroughs in quantum computing technology, a maturing quantum computing as a service infrastructure and platform market, and the growth of performance-intensive computing workloads suitable for quantum technology will drive the majority of the market growth. Quantum Computing Market Development IDC also expects ongoing investments in the quantum computing market will grow at a 6-year CAGR (2021-2027) of 11.3 per...

As more enterprise CIOs and CTOs transition to the cloud, the opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs) expanded. At the same time, the managed cloud services market has become more complex as organizations increasingly look to their service providers for superior solutions and business technology leadership. A worldwide survey by International Data Corporation (IDC) examined the service and business requirements that MSPs and their ecosystem partners need to optimize their growth opportunities and drive competitive advantage in the market for managed cloud services. Managed Cloud Services Market Development Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders utilize public cloud capabilities (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), innovative technologies and processes (IoT, edge computing, blockchain), and multi-cloud management platforms for their growth strategies and to ensure business resiliency. While very few organizations have shifted all of their IT applications and infrastructure to the cloud...

When, where, and how knowledge workers perform their role continues to evolve, as the COVID-19 pandemic disruption impacts the Global Networked Economy. Now, the Future of Work (FoW) model enables improved employee experiences in an environment unbounded by time or physical space. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), FoW spending will be nearly $656 billion in 2021 -- that's an increase of 17.4 percent over 2020. "Traditional work models do not provide the agility, scalability, and resilience required by the future enterprise. This was, of course, highlighted by the ongoing health crisis. To drive growth and competitive differentiation, organizations will invest in technologies and services," said Holly Muscolino, vice president at IDC . Future of Work Market Development To facilitate the transition to a fully distributed workforce, organizations are investing in a wide range of solutions. The largest area of investment i...

The large enterprise quest to shift more IT workloads to hyperscale cloud service providers was pursued with the expectation of streamlining business processes for new digital transformation projects. While there are benefits to adopting public cloud services, there remain inherent IT management complexities. The global public cloud services market includes a broad mix of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), System Infrastructure Software as a Service (SISaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), which grew by 24.1 percent year-over-year in 2020 with revenues totaling $312 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Spending continued to consolidate in 2020 with the combined revenue of the top 5 public cloud service providers capturing ~38 percent of the worldwide total, and it's growing 32 percent year-over-year. Due to an expanding portfolio of SaaS and SISaaS offerings, Microsoft now shares the top p...

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the Digital Transformation trends. Savvy CIOs and CTOs that were an early adopter of public cloud computing technologies now have a significant strategic market lead over their competitors. Moreover, a few dominant IT platform providers continue to benefit from this trend. The worldwide public cloud services market -- including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) -- grew by 26 percent year-over-year in 2019 with revenues totaling $233.4 billion, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Spending continued to consolidate with the combined revenue of the top five global public cloud service providers -- Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google, and Oracle -- capturing more than one third of the worldwide total and growing at 35 percent year-over-year. Public Cloud Services Market Development "Cloud is expanding far beyond niche e-comm...

Leading public cloud service providers continue to gain market share across the globe. The cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market grew 37.3 percent in 2019 to reach $44.5 billion -- that's up from $32.4 billion in 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Amazon (AWS) retained the number one position in the IaaS market in 2019, followed by Microsoft (Azure), Alibaba, Google and Tencent. The remaining cloud service providers are essentially niche players, by comparison. "Cloud underpins the push to digital business, which remains at the top of CIOs’ agendas," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . “It enables technologies such as the edge, AI, machine learning and 5G, among others." Public Cloud IaaS Market Development Each emerging technology requires a scalable, elastic and high-capacity infrastructure platform like public cloud IaaS. In 2019, the top five IaaS providers accounted for 80 percent of the market -- that's ...

Has the public cloud computing services market matured to the point of saturation? The most current market research data seems to indicate that growth may be slowing across the globe. Regardless, demand is not focused on technology, instead, it's all about the anticipated business outcomes. While line of business (LoB) leaders typically drive demand for cloud service adoption, it's the enterprise CTO and CIO that must manage the cloud computing and storage procurement process. Meanwhile, numerous vendors and service providers are now competing for new cloud customers. Public Cloud Market Development The worldwide public cloud services market is forecast to grow 17 percent in 2020 to total $266.4 billion -- that's up from $227.8 billion in 2019, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "At this point, cloud adoption is mainstream," said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner . "The expectations of the outcomes associated with cloud investm...

The pace of cloud computing adoption will accelerate as more organizations explore hybrid IT strategies. CIOs and CTOs will fine-tune the mix of on-premises and managed cloud services for their user's varied applications and workloads. Worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure will more than double over the 2019-2023 forecast period, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). With a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3 percent, public cloud spending is forecast to grow from $229 billion in 2019 to reach nearly $500 billion in 2023. Public Cloud Service Market Development "Adoption of public (shared) cloud services continues to grow rapidly as enterprises, especially in professional services, telecommunications, and retail, continue to shift from traditional application software to software as a service (SaaS) and from traditional infrastructure to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to empower custo...

Leading hyperscale cloud service providers continue to disrupt the traditional IT infrastructure vendor landscape, as more enterprise CIOs and CTOs expand their adoption of multi-cloud strategies that marginalize the remaining applications for on-premises data centers. Legacy IT vendors that were reluctant to evolve their business model will now seek niche cloud market segments where they can differentiate their offerings. There's no viable growth path that's based upon hardware or software market status-quo assumptions. However, distinctive professional services are still a source of new opportunities. Cloud Computing Market Development The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 17.5 percent in 2019 to total $214.3 billion -- that's up from $182.4 billion in 2018, according to the latest global market study by Gartner. The fastest-growing market segment will be cloud system infrastructure services, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which i...

Why do most internet of things (IoT) analytics operations occur in the cloud? The public cloud offers a centralized location for large amounts of affordable storage and computing power. But there are many instances in which it makes more sense to perform analytics closer to the thing or activity that is generating or collecting data ­– equipment deployed at customer sites. This is particularly true in industrial and manufacturing environments, which are familiar with the challenges of managing massive amounts of unstructured data, but may lag when it comes to the virtualization of IT infrastructure. Industrial Cloud Market Development Advances in intelligent process manufacturing, factory automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning models all benefit from edge analytics implementations, yet will likely become islands of automation without a cohesive industrial cloud computing platform. The industrial cloud covers everything from the factory floor to the industrial ...