Worldwide public cloud end-user spending to reach nearly $500bn this year

Gartner predicts a 20.4 per cent growth in spending in 2022

Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow to nearly $500bn by the end of 2022.

That's according to tech analyst firm Gartner, which predicts infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) will rake in the highest spending growth this year.

Public cloud services as a whole are forecast to grow 20.4 per cent to total $494.7bn, up from $410.9bn in 2021.

By the end of 2023, Gartner says this end-user spending on public cloud could soar to almost $600bn.

2022: "CIOs are beyond the era of irrational exuberance of procuring cloud services"

Gartner research vice president, Sid Nag, said CIO purchasing decisions around public cloud have matured to become more "thoughtful".

"Cloud is the powerhouse that drives today's digital organisations," he said.

"CIOs are beyond the era of irrational exuberance of procuring cloud services and are being thoughtful in their choice of public cloud providers to drive specific, desired business and technology outcomes in their digital transformation journey."

IaaS is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth in 2022 at 30.6 per cent, followed by DaaS at 26.6 per cent and PaaS at 26.1 per cent.

Gartner says hybrid work is prompting organisations to move away from powering their workforce with traditional client computing solutions and toward DaaS, driving spending to reach $2.6bn in 2022.

SaaS remains king

The analyst firm added that SaaS remains the largest public cloud services market segment, forecasted to reach $176.6bn in end-user spending in 2022.

"Driven by maturation of core cloud services, the focus of differentiation is gradually shifting to capabilities that can disrupt digital businesses and operations in organisations directly," he said.

"Public cloud services have become so integral that providers are now forced to address social and political challenges, such as sustainability and data sovereignty.

"IT leaders who view the cloud as an enabler rather than an end state will be most successful in their digital transformational journeys.

"The organisations combining cloud with other adjacent, emerging technologies will fare even better."