The cloud revolution: Six numbers channel partners need to know

It’s hardly a revelation for channel partners to learn that the reliance on cloud infrastructure has grown dramatically over the past twelve months, but the sheer scale and speed of change is incredibly impressive and offers both giant opportunities and a need for a serious focus on reliability and security.

In 2021, the industry needs to adapt and focus on cloud provision, be that through infrastructure, security or ongoing support services. The pandemic saw something of a scramble to adapt to distributed requirements, but now the leap has been made, it is up to the channel to help improve, organise and cement these changes as part of the everyday operations of end customers.

In order to highlight this, we’ve collected some of the most interesting statistics from our recent eBook: 7 Tech trends set to transform the IT channel in 2021. If you’d like to learn more about the ways you can unlock the potential value of this shift, download the full eBook now.

As the need for remote and hybrid working continues, almost a third (30%) of enterprise firms say they are looking to increase spend on cloud, security, networks and mobility. This investment will increase the size of the global public cloud infrastructure market by 35%, with an estimated value of $120 billion in 2021 (Forrester).

Worldwide IT spending is set to see a slight uptick over the next 12 months, with analysts predicting a market of some $3.8 trillion, an overall rise of around 4%, and cloud migration is set to be a major driver of the increase (Gartner). In the aftermath of COVID-19, cloud is predicted to make up 14.2% of that spend by 2024, as business look to cement distributed capability. (Gartner).

Software as a Service (SaaS) will unsurprisingly remain the largest market segment and is forecast to grow to $117.7 billion in 2021. However, expect application infrastructure services to expand at a slightly higher overall rate, with estimated growth of almost 26.6% (Gartner).

The accelerating shift to cloud has been identified across the industry as a primary focus for the year, as CIOs look to drive digital resilience across organisations. Indeed, 80% of enterprises will put a mechanism in place by the end of 2021 to shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic (IDC).

According to IDC, more than 40% of enterprise customers will significantly increase their spending on cloud this year, driven by markets in the US and APAC. The European market is also set to see stellar growth, with 27% of those interviewed indicating a sizable increase in spend.

Of course, the opportunity in cloud isn’t all about the single sell, but in providing ongoing value to the end customer. Fortunately, we may not have to do all of the hard work. A study by Statista showed that artificial intelligence will develop a symbiotic relationship with the cloud market, powering computing while cloud in turn increases the impact of AI on everyday operations.

In terms of created value, McKinsey estimated a minimum impact of $3.5 trillion, but have stressed this is a conservative estimate. The value added by AI in cloud computing could be as high as 15.4$ trillion.

The acceleration of cloud services and infrastructure is just one of the massive changes the channel is seeing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, download our free eBook 7 Tech trends set to transform the IT channel in 2021.

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