Cloud infrastructure spending set to hit $75bn in 2021 - IDC

The analyst further predicts cloud infrastructure spending to total $74.6bn by the end of this year

Global spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud infrastructure, including dedicated and shared environments, increased 12.5 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2021 to $15.1bn.

According to figures from IDC, investments in non-cloud infrastructure grew 6.3 per cent in Q1 to $13.5bn.

The analyst's data also found that spending on shared cloud infrastructure climbed 11.6 per cent year on year in Q1, reaching $10.3bn.

IDC added it expects shared cloud infrastructure spending to surpass non-cloud infrastructure spending in the near future.

The analyst also predicts cloud environments to continue to outpace non-cloud throughout its forecast.

IDC claims that, with healthy first quarter results and the overall infrastructure market beginning to recover from the pandemic, cloud infrastructure spending will rise 12.9 per cent to $74.6bn by the end of 2021, while non-cloud infrastructure is expected to grow 2.7 per cent to $58.5bn after two years of decline.

Shared cloud infrastructure, on the other hand, is expected to jump by 12.2 per cent to $51.8bn for the full year. Spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure is expected to increase 14.7 per cent to $22.7bn for the full year.

Regional breakdown

IDC claims spending on cloud infrastructure increased across most regions in Q1, with the highest annual growth rates in Canada (40.3 per cent), China (35 per cent), and Asia/Pacific excluding Japan and China (28.8 per cent).

Meanwhile, Western Europe grew 10.8 per cent, the US grew 4.5 per cent, and Japan declined 1.1 per cent.

Vendors

At the vendor level, all major players grew their cloud infrastructure revenue in Q1, according to IDC's figures, with the highest growth rates belonging to Lenovo (38.2 per cent) and Huawei (37.9 per cent).