Gartner: Global public cloud end-user spending will exceed $300 billion in 2021

According to Gartner's latest forecast, global end-user spending on public cloud services will increase by 18.4% in 2021, reaching a total of US$304.9 billion (US$257.5 billion in 2020). It is expected that by 2024, cloud will account for 14.2% of the global enterprise IT consumer market, an increase of 9.1% from 2020. 

While software as a service (SaaS) remains the largest market segment and is expected to grow to $117.7 billion in 2021, application infrastructure services (PaaS) will see the highest growth of 26.6%. The increase in PaaS consumption is due to the need for remote workers to access high-performance, content-rich, and scalable infrastructure (primarily modern cloud-native applications) to perform their duties.

Sid Nag, vice president of research at Gartner, said that the epidemic has confirmed the value of the cloud. The on-demand, scalable cloud model for cost efficiency and business continuity has provided the impetus for enterprise organizations to rapidly advance digital business transformation plans. The increasing popularity of public cloud services has made cloud computing the "new normal" and more important than ever before.

It is understood that after the outbreak of COVID-19, the proportion of IT spending on cloud transformation has continued to accelerate. It is estimated that by 2024, cloud services will account for 14.2% of total global corporate IT spending, up from 9.1% in 2020.

Recent Gartner survey data shows that nearly 70% of corporate organizations currently using cloud services plan to increase their cloud spending after suffering business disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As enterprises increase investments in mobility, collaboration and other remote work technologies and infrastructure, Gartner predicts that public cloud will continue to grow through 2024. Further growth will be driven by increasing collaboration between cloud service providers and telecommunications companies to extend their reach to the edge and support a hybrid workforce.