The public cloud services marketwhich includes Software as a Service, Platforms as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service, grew in 2021 by 29% to revenue of $408.6 billion, according to IDC. This past year, the top 5 public cloud service providers (Microsoft, AWS, Salesforce, Google, and SAP) have managed to capture nearly 40% of the market, posting 36.6% year-over-year growth.
Microsoft is the provider that offers services in all four categories of public cloud services and leads the market for public cloud services. It managed to capture 14.4% of the market in 2021, followed by AWS, with 13.7%. And while the overall public cloud services market was up 29% in revenue in 2021, those for the IaaS, SaaS and PaaS segments combined were up 38.5%. This underscores companies’ reliance on cloud innovation platforms that have been built around the deployment of computing, data and AI services. Also services for development and deployment of apps.
IDC expects that investment in this type of cloud services, especially IaaS and PaaS, will continue to grow, and even at a higher level than the cloud market in general, since companies will use these services to overcome the difficulties and shift to a digital business model.
Eric Newmark, Vice President and Head of SaaS, Enterprise Software, and Worldwide Services at IDCnotes that “SaaS applications remain the largest and most mature segment of the public cloud, with 2021 revenue reaching $177 billion«. Furthermore, he recalls thatcompanies are looking for applications that help them increase business intelligence, improve operational efficiency and optimize decision-making. Ease of use, deployment and integration, streamlined workflows, data and analytics accessibility, and time-to-value are the key criteria driving purchasing decisions, although verticalization has steadily risen as a key priority«.
In the market IaaS, SaaS and PaaSthe top five public cloud service providers command nearly 75% market share. The rest is distributed among various smaller companies, with more relevance in SaaS than in the other two areas, which provide cloud services and are distributed in dozens of countries.
