The new hot topic in the tech industry has been around because — and this is a conservative estimate — the early 2000s.
It has taken us a while to get where we are today, but these days the cloud permeates all facets of an IT environment — from software to platforms to infrastructure. A quick look at the top public cloud service providers — AWS, Microsoft, Google and IBM — shows the rivalry is fierce among vendors and the decision-making procedure for technology buyers isn’t for the faint of heart.
With the roster of vendor-behemoths chasing your cloud dollars, it comes as no surprise that the stakes are high. In its Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, IDC predicts that spending on public cloud services and infrastructure will more than double between now and 2023 with public cloud spending, growing from $229 billion in 2019 to nearly $500 billion in 2023.
IDC reports that software for a service is going to be the most significant category of cloud computing, getting more than half of public cloud computing. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) will be the next largest category of public cloud spending, followed by platform for a service (PaaS). IaaS spending, comprised of servers and storage devices, will also be the fastest growing category of cloud computing,
What IT leaders think, we asked
But which cloud providers are enterprise IT decision-makers likely to choose and why? To find out, IDG, in a series a phone interviews, requested tech pros their ideas on these question:
Are you currently using a cloud hosting service provider?
If yes, which one?
What are your priorities in regards to public and private cloud?
What’s your primary priority to your own cloud strategy?
Not surprisingly, the majority of those responding within our polls of IT leaders are using a cloud service. Somewhat surprising perhaps is that Microsoft Azure topped AWS as the cloud service of selection among the 400 tech pros we called. (For more on how Microsoft Azure and AWS compare check out this head-to-head comparison.)
Asked to think about their priorities between public vs. personal cloud, business users ranked private and a combined hybrid approach ahead of a public-only strategy.
No one said cloud deployments are easy. The responses to our question about what IT leaders are spending their time focusing on highlight both the guarantee and intricacies of moving to the cloud — price economies (i.e., the promise) and managing a multicloud surroundings (i.e., the complexity) tied as the biggest priority.
To get a deeper dip into the current condition of cloud computing, don’t miss Eric Knorr’s comprehensive analysis of this state of the cloud in an Insider Pro exclusive report.
