Revenue generated from public cloud infrastructure now accounts for more than one-third of global IT infrastructure sales, according to second-quarter figures released by International Data Corporation.
Meanwhile, IDC says demand for non-cloud IT services is continuing to decline rapidly, though traditional offerings still make up more than half the global share of IT revenue.
Spending on public cloud infrastructure — servers, storage and Ethernet switches which work for both public and private cloud service — totaled $8.7 billion through the first half of 2017, a 27 percent increase year over year. That spending, according to IDC, continues to be driven by the server market, which accounted for 60 percent of revenue on public infrastructure for the last 18 months.
“The strength in public cloud growth continued at an accelerated pace through the first half of 2017,” said Kuba Stolarski, research director for Computing Platforms at IDC. “
That uptick also extended to nearly all corners of the globe, according to IDC, as every cloud region except for Latin America, which declined by 13 percent, experienced double-digit revenue growth from cloud IT infrastructure compared to last year.
IDC also notes growth in the public cloud is being predominantly driven by market leader Amazon, but note that it is “important to remember that many of the other hyperscalers – Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu – are preparing for their own expansions.”
Some key takeaways:
- Vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud reached $12.3 billion, an increase of 25.8 percent year over year
- Private cloud generated $3.7 billion in sales during the second quarter, an annual increase of nearly 10 percent.
- Combined, public and private cloud IT infrastructure sales have nearly tripled in the last four years
- Demand for non-cloud IT services fell 3.8 percent during the quarter, though the segment still makes up 52.4 percent of total revenue
- Dell holds the lead for vendors with 11.8 percent of total cloud IT infrastructure sales at $1.4 billion.
- Huawei, the world’s fourth largest cloud infrastructure vendor, posted the fastest revenue growth, with more than 30 percent year on year.
- Western Europe and Asia/Pacific are the fastest growing regions for cloud IT infrastructure spending, up 30 percent and 33.4 percent respectively