The global cloud computing market has grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure continuing to lead the pack.
Research from Canalys and Synergy revealed that cloud infrastructure services spending grew 33 percent in Q3 2020 as governments, businesses and consumers become more increasingly dependent on cloud-based tools and services.
Canalys said the market grew to US$36 million, up US$2 billion from Q2 2020 and US$9 billion from Q3 2019. Synergy had the market lower at US$33 million.
AWS remained the market leader for both, taking 32 percent of the market in Canalys’ findings, while Synergy pegged its share to 33 percent.
Microsoft Azure continued its growth trajectory and has increased its market share from 17 percent to 19 percent in Canalys’ research, while Synergy has Microsoft at 18 percent.
Google Cloud retains its third place spot by focusing on its six targeted industries - retail, financial services, media and entertainment, manufacturing and public sector - logging in at 7 percent in Canalys’ research.
Canalys chief analyst Matthew Ball said, “Increased consumption has driven cloud infrastructure services spend this year, though some larger and more complex deals were delayed due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.”
“But as organizations adjust to the new normal, these longer-term projects are accelerating again. Some organizations are taking a cost-driven approach by reducing capital expenditure on their own data centers and cutting management costs from outsourcing contracts.
“Others are taking a transformational approach, developing new cloud-native applications and business models. But they will all have to be more measured and cost-conscious, requiring greater control and visibility of spend, while also deciding not to migrate every workload.”
Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale said the results were “a little surprising” even after the firm expected continued strong growth.
“Total revenues were up by $2.5 billion from the previous quarter causing the year-on-year growth rate to nudge upwards, which is unusual for such a large market. It is quite clear that COVID-19 has provided an added boost to a market that was already developing rapidly,” he said.
“Meanwhile, the companies competing for a share of the market have settled into three camps. Amazon and Microsoft are in a league of their own, while others are either aggressively seeking to grow their position in the market or are more focused on specific services, geographies or customer groupings.”
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