23+ Cloud Computing Statistics and Adoption Trends

Once, it might have seemed crazy or like a sci-fi story, but today, the cloud is anything but that. A vast majority of companies and individuals across the globe are using the cloud to store their data and information about their customers. For reference, the cloud is a network of remote servers accessed over the internet. Companies primarily store their resources such as data, databases, and servers on the cloud. As a result, it saves companies the costs of installing various hardware solutions. 

We have compiled a list of the most popular cloud computing statistics to guide you through the amazing world of cloud computing and the stellar growth of this industry. 

Cloud Computing Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

• By 2025, over 100 zettabytes of data will be stored in the cloud. (Cloudwards)
• 89% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy in place. (Flexera)
• 71% of Americans use cloud storage services like Dropbox or iCloud. (Statista)
• 48% of corporate data is on the cloud. (Panda Security)
• The cloud computing market’s worth in 2020 was $371.4 billion. (Globe Newswire)
• Global end-user spending on the public cloud will rise by 23.1% in 2021. (Gartner)
• With 83%, security is the most common challenge for cloud adoption. (Cloudwards)
• 52% of companies want cloud solutions with their security tools. (Cloudwards)

Some Essential Statistics About Cloud Computing

1. By 2025, over 100 zettabytes of data will be stored in the cloud. 

This fact speaks volumes about the rise of cloud computing. For a clearer picture, one zettabyte is a billion terabytes and a trillion gigabytes. It’s a pretty staggering amount. To put things in perspective, the volume of stored data globally is set to reach 200 zettabytes by 2025. This means half of the total data globally will be in the cloud. For comparison, 25% of computing data was on the cloud in 2015. 

(Cloudwards)

2. Cisco predicted that by 2021, 94% of all workloads would run in a cloud environment. 

The networking giant Cisco reported that by 2021, most workload dedicated servers would be a minority thanks to the growth of cloud computing. Statistics from their Global Cloud Index show that 94% of workloads will occur in public and private clouds. 

(Network World)

3. AWS owns 33% of the cloud infrastructure market share. 

One of the largest cloud computing companies, Amazon Web Services, generated $4.88 billion in operating income for Amazon in 2020. The value of the cloud computing revenues of this giant grew by 39% in the same year. Following AWS, Azure has the largest market share of 20% of cloud infrastructure services, while Google holds 10%.

(DCD) 

4. Workload migration to the cloud is the top initiative of European organizations, with 70%. 

According to cloud migration statistics, this is the number one initiative on the agenda of the European organizations that haven’t already moved their operations to the cloud. Next is optimizing cloud use to cut costs (59%) and fostering a cloud-first strategy (50%). 

(Cloudwards)

5. 89% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy in place. 

In 2021, the trends were moving toward embracing multi and hybrid cloud strategies. One of the main drivers behind them was the pandemic, pushing the need for higher cloud usage. While it was a need at the time, now most organizations plan to gravitate toward a multi-cloud strategy. Moreover, 80% plan to embrace a hybrid cloud strategy, cloud cost savings statistics indicate. 

(Flexera)

6. 6% of organizations optimized their use of the cloud in 2021.  

Optimization of cloud spending is the top priority for many organizations globally. To paint a clearer picture, respondents to a recent survey claim their organizations waste approximately 32% of their cloud spending. Companies could seek advice from many cloud consulting companies to utilize cloud resources better. 

(Flexera)

7. The average cloud price is around $400 monthly per server. 

Although the average cost of cloud computing depends on different factors, typically, the price per server varies between $400 and $15,000. Moreover, according to cloud computing usage statistics, the latter often comes with an entire back-office infrastructure.

(N6 Host)

8. Cloud computing is up to 40 times more cost-effective for small and medium businesses. 

Compared to the costs of running an in-house system, cloud computing is a much better option for SMBs. Moreover, 94% of these companies found security in the cloud solutions, which, in most cases, they haven’t had in their in-house infrastructure. 

(Multisoft) 

9. A single hour of cloud downtime costs organizations over $100,000 annually. 

In 2020, there were several major cloud disruptions. These server issues resulted in 117 minutes of downtime, cloud computing statistics indicate. It’s almost two hours, and for 98% of organizations, that resulted in a $100,000 loss per hour. However, even that is an average, since 40% of organizations stated they lost between $1 and $5 million in one-hour downtime. 

(Accenture)

10. As of Q1 2020, 56% of American small business owners spent over $600,000 on public cloud expenses. 

The public cloud is one of the most cost-effective options for small businesses. Hence, it was projected that by 2020, 78% of small companies would have adopted cloud computing. Moreover, 84% of small business owners believed that cloud services were vital to their overall performance. 

(Finances Online)

Cloud Computing Usage Statistics

11. 71% of Americans use cloud storage services like Dropbox or iCloud. 

According to recent cloud computing trends, most people in the US use some sort of cloud storage service. Typically, for personal purposes, most people in the US use Google One/Drive (40%), followed by iCloud (33%), and Microsoft OneDrive (20%). 

(Statista)

12. Google Drive is the most used cloud storage globally, with 94.44%. 

Google Drive dominates the global cloud storage market by the number of users. Cloud computing statistics show that Dropbox is next on the list, with 66.2%. OneDrive is third (39.35%), followed by iCloud (38.89%). Some lesser know services are MEGA (5.09%), Box (4.17%), and pCloud (1.39%). 

(Cloudwards)

13. Around 71% of people claim they keep photos in their cloud storage. 

With cloud adoption growth, people find different uses for it — however, most store photos. Also, 53% save their backup in the cloud. Next, 41% save music and videos, while 35% keep office documents in their storage. Finally, 27% and 18% keep passwords and financial data, cloud computing statistics say.

(Statista)

14. Google Drive has over a billion users. 

Thanks to the stellar cloud computing growth over the last couple of years, cloud storage service providers have witnessed user proliferation. Therefore, Google Workspace reached two billion users in 2020. After this giant, Dropbox reported getting 700 million users.

(Cloudwards)

15. 48% of corporate data is on the cloud. 

The amount of data stored in the cloud is constantly growing, yet, many security implications seem unresolved. For instance, only 32% of organizations think protecting the data is in their court. That could lead to serious issues, especially if a data breach occurs. In line with statistics on cloud computing, 35% of organizations believe it should be the responsibility of cloud solution providers, while 23% take this as a crucial factor when choosing their provider. 

(Panda Security)

16. Many cloud-native apps reached 50% use in production. 

Typically, apps are tweaked to be compatible with the cloud environment, but recently many applications have been coming directly from the cloud. These are cloud-native applications that run on their infrastructure without being installed on an OS or server. Building apps like this enables companies to scale quickly and dynamically. Hence, many of these apps are reaching high levels of production use. 

(Accenture)

17. 77% of IT leaders plan to use open-source code more frequently. 

There are many reasons behind the decision to opt for open-cloud migration, stats indicate. Open-source apps utilize source code that is easily accessible for inspection and editing. Cloud solutions built with this code possess elements of easy distribution across all cloud environments. In turn, all this leads to better data transferability and interoperability. 

(Accenture)

18. In 2021, 41% of the EU enterprises used cloud computing for emails and storing files. 

To use cloud computing, companies require access to the internet. Most EU enterprises marked check for this criteria (98%). However, only slightly above two in five reported using cloud computing. Nevertheless, it’s an increase of 5% YoY. Furthermore, most organizations (two out of three, or 66%) used it to store files, cloud computing statistics demonstrate.

(Eurostat)

19. An average employee actively uses up to 36 cloud services at work. 

Nothing speaks better about cloud adoption trends than the fact that an average company uses 210 different collaboration cloud services. Similarly, an average employee accesses 36 various file-sharing tools, content-sharing services, and collaboration tools. Collaboration is the number one application of cloud computing in companies. 

(McAfee)

20. Demand for enterprise storage, ethernet switches, and serves registers a 10.9% growth rate. 

Based on cloud computing adoption statistics, the market for these three is constantly rising. As a result, public cloud providers will spread their influence even further, earning more money in the process. Not to mention that by 2022, the expenses for IT infrastructure will surge to $55.7 billion. 

(EPC Group)

21. 71% of organizations seek speed improvement with cloud adoption. 

There are many reasons why companies gravitate toward the cloud. Among many, the main one is, undoubtedly, speed improvement. Next are greater flexibility (63%) and improved customer support (57%). Typically, organizations with over 1,000 employees seek flexibility and reduced costs, while smaller ones look for business continuity. 

(Findstack)

Cloud Computing Industry

22. As part of IT services, Cloud computing contributed $400 billion in revenue in 2021. 

By looking at cloud computing growth statistics, we see no signs that this expansion is anywhere near its end. Mainly, it’s because cloud computing provides customers with less costly access to numerous technologies. For reference, this market is divided into three main segments — software, platforms, and infrastructure. 

(Statista)

23. The cloud computing market’s worth in 2020 was $371.4 billion. 

If current cloud adoption trends continue, the market will grow at a 17.5% CAGR and reach $832.1 billion by 2025. One of the main ‘culprits’ for this rapid expansion is the digital business transformation, sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, big tech companies compete to provide customers with more productive and cost-effective solutions to speed up their recovery, cloud computing statistics show. 

(Globe Newswire)

24. SaaS market size in 2022 is the highest out of all cloud computing segments, with $177 billion in revenues. 

The growth of cloud computing is present across all segments (platform, infrastructure, and software). Software as a Service (SaaS) is the highest revenue generator at the moment. Following that, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) comes with a $120 billion market size. Finally, the global Platform as a Service (PaaS) market size is $110 billion in 2022. 

(Statista)

25. In 2020, North America had the largest cloud computing market share of 61%. 

According to cloud computing growth statistics, North America is the leader in cloud adoption globally. In fact, it has three times larger market share than the second on the list, Western Europe (21%). Conversely, Africa had the smallest market of all regions. 

(Report Linker)

26. In 2020, cloud infrastructure services in China grew by 62% YoY, reaching $5.8 billion.

The example of China, best reflects the rapid cloud computing growth in a short time. For reference, the total cloud expenditure in China in 2020 broke the record with an increase of $2.2 billion compared to Q4 2019, cloud computing statistics indicate. Cloud infrastructure expansion in China keeps on outpacing the rest of the world, especially since it’s one of the top priorities on the government agenda. China is, in fact, the second-largest market in the world (after the US), comprising 14% of the global investment. 

(Canalys)

27. In 2021, the video streaming market was one of the most lucrative, with $59.14 billion worth. 

Video streaming is one of the most important contributors to the growth of cloud computing, facts indicate. Namely, most of the online video content is hosted on the cloud. As a result, the generated video streaming market comprises all relevant streaming platforms like Netflix, HBO, and Disney+. Moreover, this market is set to grow at a staggering 21% CAGR, hitting $228.98 billion in revenues by 2028. 

(Cloudwards)

28. The cloud gaming market was $432 million worth in 2020. 

From this perspective, gaming looks quite prominent in the future of cloud computing. According to cloud computing growth statistics, it is a new way of providing a fully immersive experience anywhere and at any time. With the expansion of gaming devices and audience diversification, the global cloud gaming market is expected to reach about $3,256.7 million at a CAGR of 43.2% between 2021 and 2026. 

(Finance Yahoo)

29. With $19 billion, the manufacturing industry was expected to spend the most on cloud computing in 2021. 

IDC forecasted that the manufacturing industry’s spending on cloud computing was set to reach a stunning $19 billion in 2021. Other than manufacturing, cloud computing statistics suggest that professional services ($18 billion) and banking ($16.7 billion) were next on the list. In the first place, these are the top three industries dealing with the most active investors. 

(Findstack)

30. Global end-user spending on the public cloud was forecasted to grow by 23.1% in 2021. 

Despite the economic downturn due to the pandemic, the offerings supporting public cloud services are growing strongly. As a result, SaaS is increasing steadily ($122.6 billion). Similarly, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and DaaS (Desktop as a Service) have registered the highest growth in 2021, 38.5% and 67.7%, respectively. 

(Gartner)

Cloud Computing Security Statistics

31. With 83%, security is the most common issue surrounding the cloud. 

Following the rapid cloud adoption growth, concerns about some aspects have also arisen. So, security is the number one that organizations find important. Next is spending (82%), followed by governance (79%). For reference, business owners claim that about 30% of the cloud budget goes to waste. On the other hand, some tools can make data governance much easier. 

(Cloudwards)

32. Cloud hijacking, with 45%, is the biggest threat to cloud adoption. 

Statistics about cloud computing suggest that hijacking happens when cybercriminals steal a user’s account credentials. Businesses fear this situation the most when it comes to cloud issues. Typically, attackers have different ways to conduct hijacking — from direct assault to guessing passwords. 

(Hackernoon)

33. In 2021, 18.8 billion records ended up exposed due to data breaches. 

The rise of cloud computing raises the fear of data breaches. In fact, it’s one of the main risks in cloud proliferation. However, in 2021, the number of data breaches declined by 24%. In line with cybersecurity statistics, there were 1,767 publicly registered breaches.

(Security Magazine)

Learn more: Data Breach Statistics

34. 52% of companies want cloud solutions with their security tools. 

Clouds with integrated security tools are the number one choice for most businesses, cloud computing security statistics suggest. Since security is the number one issue for those using the cloud, this should come as no surprise. 

(Cloudwards)

35. In 88% of the cases, human error is the reason for a cloud data breach. 

Even though hackers try to exploit the weaknesses of IT infrastructure, more often, it is employees’ mistakes that are the main ‘culprit.’ In most cases, cloud providers are not to blame for the leak. One of the common ways of tricking employees into releasing malicious content into the cloud is phishing. Men are twice as likely to fall for these scams than women (34% compared to 17%), cloud computing growth statistics show.

(Cloudwards)

Learn more: Phishing Statistics

36. 80% of employees use SaaS applications at work without IT approval. 

Some of the biggest threats to a company’s security lie in employees adopting external services to access internal files and data. In line with cloud computing trends, most employees never ask for approval from the IT department to use these apps, while 83% of IT professionals claim that workers stored data on unsanctioned cloud services. 

(Hackernoon)

The Bottom Line

The slowdown is nowhere on the horizon for the rise of cloud computing, statistics confirm. Despite being relatively young as a tech, nowadays, many organizations are integrating it into their business models. For that matter, the cloud can only go bigger, and there is no going back to the traditional server solutions. As a result of its rapid advance, a new wave of solutions is emerging to improve companies’ strategic ambitions. 

FAQs

Source

• Cloudwards
• Network World
• DCD
• Flexera
• N6 Host
• Multisoft
• Accenture
• Finances Online
• Statista
• Panda Security
• Eurostat
• McAfee
• EPC Group
• Findstack
• Statista
• Globe Newswire
• Report Linker
• Canalys
• Finance Yahoo
• Gartner
• Hackernoon
• Security Magazine
• Statista
• Statista
• Yahoo Finance
• Statista
• RapidScale
• HP
• Cloud Academy
• CapitalOne
• CyberlinkAsp

By Ivan Blagojevic