Global cloud infrastructure spend has topped $49.4 billion in Q3 – up 35%, research has found.
The study highlights the fact cloud services continue to be in staggering demand as we close the book on 2021 and approach 2022, with a range of factors driving the spike including on-going remote working, and the growing use of industry-specific cloud applications.
The report was conducted by Canalys and revealed how expenditure has grown $12.9 billion over Q3 2020 and $2.4 billion since last quarter.
Canalys Research Analyst Blake Murray, said: “Overall compute demand is out-growing chip manufacturing capabilities, and infrastructure expansion may become limited for the cloud service providers.
“Besides managing supply chains to the best of their abilities, the providers building an advantage are focused on developing their go-to-market channels along with their product portfolios to catch up with an increasingly wide variety of customer use cases that has fuelled demand since the start of the pandemic.”
Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounted for 32% of total cloud infrastructure services spend in Q3 2021, making it the leading cloud service provider. It grew 39% on an annual basis.
Microsoft Azure was the second largest cloud service provider in Q3, with a 21% market share. It grew over 50% for a fifth consecutive quarter.
Google Cloud was the third largest provider and grew 54% to account for 8% of the market. It announced 20 expanded technology partnerships with data and cybersecurity companies to deepen vertical expertise. Google Cloud has also emphasised its channel partners and released new incentives in its partner program. It advertised a 175% increase in customer engagements through partners during the first half of 2021.
Cloud services spending is still being affected by the digital transformation efforts required to maintain business continuity during pandemic-related disruptions.
In response, the major cloud services providers have emphasised geographic data centre expansion to meet rising demand, but the impact of the global chip shortage is imminent, as data centre component providers are seeing longer lead times and higher prices that will be passed on to the largest providers.
