Public cloud services revenue skyrockets nearly 20 per cent in H1 2023
New IDC figures show global public cloud services revenue jumped 19.1 per cent in the first half of 2023
IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker shows global revenue for public cloud services totalled $315.5bn in H1 2023, a jump of 19.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Software as a Service - Applications (SaaS - Applications) continued to generate the largest portion of public cloud services revenue, making up nearly 45 per cent of the total in H1 2023.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) was the second largest revenue category, accounting for 20.4 per cent of total takings.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service - System Infrastructure Software (SaaS - SIS) made up 18.0 per cent and 16.9 per cent of overall revenue respectively.
PaaS and SaaS - SIS saw the fastest year-on-year growth in revenue.
"The fundamentals of cloud technologies and public cloud PaaS providers as strategic partners to enterprises and companies of all sizes are evident as AI pervasiveness strengthens," said Lara Greden, research director, Platform as a Service at IDC.
"Companies continue to accelerate movement to and adoption of the cloud for modernization and new, intelligent application initiatives based on all types of data streams.
"The strong market growth seen in PaaS comes from not just the top few but a large ecosystem of PaaS vendors that are meeting customer needs in the cloud."
The leading providers of public cloud services maintained their positions in H123 with the combined revenue of the top five public cloud service providers - Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce Inc., Google, and Oracle - capturing 41 per cent of the worldwide total and relatively unchanged year-over-year.
With offerings in all four deployment categories, Microsoft remained in the top position in the overall public cloud services market with 17.1 per cent share in H123, followed by Amazon Web Services with 12.6 per cent share.
"Organisations recognise the importance of staying at the forefront of technological advancements, like generative AI or real-time analytics, to enhance their business operations and gain a competitive edge," said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, cloud and edge infrastructure Services. "
"The cloud's dynamic nature and the continuous evolution of cloud services make it an ideal platform for organisations to adopt new technologies.
This creates a great opportunity for the cloud service providers to offer comprehensive support and management services, reducing the burden on IT teams and accelerating the deployment and integration of new technologies."
IDC forecasts worldwide public cloud services revenue will reach $663bn in 2023, an increase of 20.0 per cent over 2022 with a similar increase expected in 2024.
While the annual rate of growth will slow slightly over the forecast period, the market is still forecast to deliver a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.4 per cent with worldwide revenues reaching $1.34tr in 2027.