Public cloud's supply chain 'contributed $500bn to the European economy' - IDC

The analyst said adoption has spiked over the course of the pandemic with rising digitisation across organisations

The European public cloud market continues to grow at double-digit pace, with organisations investing in public cloud solutions to support their digitisation, according to a new report from IDC.

The analyst estimates the public cloud supply chain contributed almost $500bn (€441bn)

to European GDP, 2.7 per cent of total European GDP in its Public Cloud's Contribution to the European Economy: A Macroeconomic Approach report.

IDC said this has significantly increased over the past two years, with a spike in 2020 due to the digitisation journey that many organisations undertook during the pandemic.

"Over the past five years, the public cloud market has significantly changed the IT industry and grown like no other segment of the European IT market," said IDC research analyst, European cloud and multi cloud management, Filippo Vanara.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cloud services in Europe as cloud computing is seen as a crucial enabler of business resilience, agility, innovation, and efficiency."

The research firm added that providing public cloud services requires a significant number of employees along the whole supply chain.

Therefore, IDC estimates this chain accounts for roughly 1.3 million employees, or 0.9 per cent of the total European workforce.

Moreover, when compared with the percentage of total GDP generated along the supply chain, it gives a rough estimate of the high productivity of the sector.

Luca Butiniello, research analyst, European Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC Europe, adds: "We expect public cloud providers to start considering new evaluation frameworks, identifying new metrics to increase clients' awareness of the role of new solutions adopted, which goes beyond the mere improvement of business processes."