Technology research firm Gartner is projecting that worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will increase 20.4% year over year to $678.8 billion in 2024.
One of the key reasons why user spending on public cloud services will go up: "Cloud has become essentially indispensable," Gartner Vice Principal Analyst Sid Nag said.
Where Are End-Users Spending on the Public Cloud?
Gartner is projecting that end-user spending on public cloud services in 2024 will extend across the following areas:
- Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS): $176.5 billion
- Cloud Application Services (SaaS): $244 billion
- Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS): $72.9 billion
- Cloud Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS): $3.2 billion
- Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS): $182.2 billion
Along with these areas, cloud spending across industry cloud platforms, which combine SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services to address industry-relevant business outcomes, could increase in the years to come, Gartner indicated.
Also, Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.
Expect Cloud Innovation to Continue
As global end-user spending on public cloud services increases, innovation in the cloud cannot "stop or even slow," Nag stated.
Cloud models no longer drive business outcomes, but instead, these outcomes shape cloud models, Nag noted. As such, many organizations could innovate in the cloud to achieve their desired business outcomes and transform their cloud models.
Generative Artificial Intelligence and Public Cloud Services Are in Demand
Organizations are increasingly deploying generative AI (GenAI) services and looking to the public cloud as they do so, Nag pointed out. This is due in large part to the scale of the infrastructure required to get the most value out of GenAI services.
With GenAI, organizations require cloud providers to address non-technical issues related to cost, economics, sovereignty, privacy and sustainability, Nag said. They must also utilize hyperscalers that meet these requirements so that they can "capture a brand-new revenue opportunity as GenAI adoption grows," Nag noted.
In addition, public cloud providers can build on the same approaches they apply to industry clouds, sovereign clouds and distributed clouds as they explore GenAI innovations, Nag stated. By doing so, they can "position themselves as partners in the responsible and tailored adoption of GenAI," Nag indicated.
