Cloud now a third of IT infrastructure market, says IDC

HP extends lead as cloud-based server, storage and networking market swells by nearly a quarter

HP is the clear leader in a cloud-based IT infrastructure sector that now accounts for more than a third of the total market, according to IDC.

Vendor revenue from infrastructure products – namely server, storage and Ethernet switches – for cloud IT bulged 23 per cent year on year to $7.6bn (£5.3bn) in the third quarter of 2015, the market watcher said.

This means cloud-based revenues accounted for 33.8 per cent of the overall IT infrastructure market during the quarter, said IDC, up from 28.7 per cent a year earlier.

HP [the enterprise arm of which is now HPE] is currently the market silverback, commanding a 15.7 per cent share in Q3 after growing cloud IT infrastructure sales 28 per cent to $1.18bn. Dell, Cisco and EMC held a 10.4 per cent, 9.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent market share respectively, while NetApp and IBM were tied in fifth with a 3.4 per cent share of the spoils.

While vendor revenues from traditional IT infrastructure continues to head south, falling 3.2 per cent year on year in Q3, IT infrastructure sales to private cloud pogoed 18.8 per cent to $2.9bn and sales to public cloud powered up 25.9 per cent to $4.6bn, IDC said.

"Customers are modernising their infrastructures, having a progressively larger number of viable options for cloud deployments either on or off premises," said Kuba Stolarski, research director for Computing Hardware and Platforms at IDC.

IDC's findings come after fellow analyst Synergy Research declared 2015 the year cloud "went mainstream". It said total cloud revenue for the 12 months ending 30 September was up 28 per cent year on year to $110bn.