Synergy Research Group Analyst: ‘2020 ended with a bang for the cloud infrastructure market’
Enterprises spent more than $37 billion on cloud infrastructure services in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to data from Synergy Research Group. The results represent a $4 billion increase from the previous quarter and a 35% increase from the fourth quarter of 2019. Data further revealed that the full-year 2020 revenue for cloud infrastructure services hit $129 billion.
Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group John Dinsdale commented that $4 billion jump from Q3 to Q4 added up to 2020 ending “with a bang for the could market.”
The notable year-over-year increase can mostly likely be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in an increase in demand for cloud services, with some calling the pandemic a “catalyst for cloud.”
The broader industry impact was discussed during the most recent Davos Agenda virtual event when Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon stated that, due to COVID-19, the world has “leapfrogged at least five to seven years in digital inclusion in the world, or digital advancement in the world.”
Unsurprisingly, Dinsdale concluded that “Amazon and Microsoft tend to overshadow the market, with Amazon share staying at well over 30% and Microsoft growing its share from 10% to 20% over 16 quarters.”
He did add, though, that after excluding those two giants, the rest of the market is still growing by over 30% per year, which he said “point[s] to growth opportunities for many of the smaller cloud providers.”
In additional to Microsoft and Amazon, Alibaba also experienced a steady fain in market share over the last four years. Smaller cloud providers, like Tencent, Baidu and Salesforce were among some of the market losers, having collectively have lost 13% points of market share over the last 16 quarters.
The bulk of the market, according to the data, went to public IaaS and PaaS, with those having grown by 36% in Q4. In the public cloud space, the dominance of the larger players is the most apparent. In this category, the top five cloud companies control 80%of the market.
