How Many Companies Use Cloud Computing and What’s it All About?

As there is an enormous amount of data that needs to be stored and managed each day, most companies have begun incorporating cloud-based technology into their business infrastructure. Believe it or not, 95% of businesses still have issues with unstructured data that requires managing. 

If you’re interested to know how many companies use cloud computing and how they benefit from it, below are some statistics that can help give you a clearer picture of the industry.

1. By 2025, the public cloud market will be worth more than $800 billion.

(Cision)

According to a market research report from 2020, the global market size of cloud computing is expected to grow to $832.1 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5% during that period.

Any business can gain a lot by implementing cloud computing. Big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) are all rising in popularity, so it’s important for businesses to stay on the cutting edge.

2. During Q2 of 2020, spending on cloud services surpassed $30 billion.

(Synergy Research Group)

Recent cloud computing statistics and a report issued by Synergy Research Group show that the total funds spent on cloud infrastructure services exceeded $30 billion in the second quarter of 2020. 

The growth of the cloud market has been steady for the past few years. The first major change occurred between 2016 and 2017, with a massive growth of $3.3 billion. This growth trend has continued and become more drastic, with current predictions showing an even brighter future.

3. 36% of enterprises spend more than $12 million on cloud services annually.

(Flexera)

Highlights from the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report show that 36% of enterprises spend more than $12 million each year on implementing cloud technology solutions. These cloud computing stats represent a huge increase compared to the 20% from the last year.

In 2021, 83% of enterprises confirmed that their annual spending was more than $1.2 million, while in 2020 that figure was 74%. Flextera’s report reveals that COVID-19 had a major impact on cloud adoption in 2020, and that trend is still continuing.

4. Amazon Web Services has a 32% market share, which makes it the world’s leading cloud provider.

(Canalys)

The easiest way to explain how dominant AWS is among the largest cloud providers is to say that it has nearly twice the market share of its nearest competitor, Microsoft Azure. Cloud computing usage statistics show that, back in 2019, AWS had over a million users in more than 190 countries worldwide.

In 2018 alone, AWS earned $26 billion in revenue for its parent company, and it accounts for 13% of Amazon’s total sales, according to statistics.

5. In 2018, the average yearly cloud budget for enterprises was $2.2 million.

(IDG)

Based on findings from the 2018 IDG Cloud Computing study, in that year, enterprises had an annual cloud budget of $2.2 million. Both enterprises and SMBs started using different types of cloud computing in order to improve their security policies and business strategies.

This might not sound like much, but bear in mind that just two years before, that number was $1.6 million, which shows that there has been a 36% increase. About a third of companies' IT budgets were spent on cloud services.

While enterprises spent $3.5 million per year on cloud services, SMBs had an average budget of around $889,000.

6. 32% of the average enterprise’s IT budget will be committed to cloud solutions by 2021.

(Bloomberg)

According to the IDG Cloud Computing Survey, which was published last year, it’s expected that 32% of IT budgets will be focused on cloud technologies throughout 2021. These cloud computing market trends were ascertained by speaking to various technology decision-makers. 

Of those, 92% said that their infrastructure, data analytics, and applications rely on the cloud, and that’s likely to keep growing in the coming years.

7. Q1 of 2020 saw Google Cloud generate $2.77 billion in revenue.

(Statista)

Google Cloud was originally launched in 2008 and, since then, it has been gaining popularity. In the first quarter of last year, Google Cloud earned $2.77 billion, which was a significant improvement compared to $1.825 billion in revenue in 2019. 

As one of the largest cloud computing companies, behind just AWS and Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud is a top contender for cloud native applications. It hasn’t always been aligned with enterprise customers, which is something the company is working on by moving toward multi-cloud solutions.

Cloud Computing Adoption Statistics

8. In 2019, 84% of enterprises had implemented multi-cloud solutions.

(Flexera)

The use of multi-cloud strategies rose by 3% in a year. In 2018, the percentage of enterprises using multi-cloud solutions was 81%.

When talking about the different types of companies that use cloud computing, SMBs were most likely to lean toward public clouds, with 44% of them choosing either single or multiple public clouds.

9. In 2018, 77% of enterprises had at least one application fully or partially stored on the cloud.

(Forbes)

Various studies including one from IDG show that back in 2018, 77% of organizations had at least one app stored entirely or partially on the cloud. These numbers have changed over the past few years as the cloud computing market has continued to grow. If you want to know how many companies use cloud computing today, the answer would be an extremely impressive 94%.

10. 73% of companies in the insurance industry use hybrid cloud services.

(The Future of Things)

According to a McAfee report that includes survey results from around 1,400 IT companies, only 13% of participants trust the public cloud market, 37% of them have some sort of trust in it, while 19% are completely sceptical about it. 

This report also displays how well cloud computing adoption works among different industries and what type of cloud infrastructure they use. Here are some of those cloud computing facts divided into categories:

• Telecommunications. 27% private, 50% hybrid, 23% public cloud market
• Finance. 26% private, 56% hybrid, 18% public cloud market
• Education. 26% private, 54% hybrid, 19% public cloud market
• Insurance. 18% private, 73% hybrid, 9% public cloud market

11. 94% of companies were using private and/or public clouds in 2019.

(Flexera)

2018 was the year in which cloud computing became mainstream, and that trend continued in 2019. According to the RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud report, 94% of respondents had started using cloud technologies in one way or another. Hybrid and multi-cloud solutions were the preferred option for most businesses. However, some experienced users had plans to move away from hybrid options and invest in public and private cloud computing solutions.

Public cloud adoption statistics reveal that only 9% of enterprises were focused on building a private cloud, while 31% of them saw public clouds as their top priority.

Cloud Computing Security Statistics

12. 84% of IT workers were worried about cloud security in 2020.

(Fugue)

In 2020, cloud security company Fugue published a survey showing that 84% of IT professionals were worried about cloud security during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Their main concerns were vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity measures employed by companies that use the cloud, according to statistics on cloud computing adoption.

13. 73% of teams operating on cloud systems have more than 10 misconfiguration incidents per day.

(Fugue)

Results from a survey Fugue conducted in 2019 show that 73% of participants encountered more than 10 cloud misfiguration incidents on a daily basis. Of the total, 36% experienced more than 100 incidents and 10% faced more than 500. These incidents could open the door for some unauthorized traffic, with damaging consequences such as cybercrime attacks.

Based on latest statistics of cloud computing the majority of these misconfiguration incidents happen due to lack of awareness of cloud policies and security (roughly 52%), while around 49% of incidents happen as a consequence of lack of adequate controls.

14. By 2022, 95% of all cloud security breaches will be due to user error.

(IBM)

According to a study by IBM, by 2022 human error will be the cause of 95% of all data breaches. Around 34% of all data breaches come from phishing scams, while 19% happen as a result of clicking on a link with ransomware. 

In order to resolve this ongoing issue and straighten their security protocols, companies need to train their employees properly. As the cloud computing market size grows, so does the need for keeping cloud-based data secure.

15.  In 2020, the global average cost of a data breach fell to $3.86 million.

(Statista)

This was a 1.5% reduction compared to the previous year, as the average cost of a corporate data breach in 2019 was $3.92 million. The all-time high was recorded in 2016, when the global average cost of a breach reached $4 million.

These statistics vary by region and country, with the average in the US being much higher: $7.9 million.

Cloud Computing Statistics by Region

16. The UK was one of the top three countries for cloud investment in 2020.

(Pure Cloud)

By going through some stats and facts about cloud computing, we can see that in 2020, the United Kingdom was the third largest source of cloud investment in the world. People and organizations in the United States took first place by investing $171 billion, while China followed with $14.5 billion.

17. More than 90% of businesses in Asia and the Pacific already use or plan to incorporate multi-cloud technology.

(Accenture)

Based on a report published by Accenture in 2020, more than 90% of business leaders in this region have strongly considered adopting cloud technology. The stats show that 52% of them use or plan to use a completely integrated hybrid environment, while more than 50% of these enterprises want to migrate their workloads onto a public cloud.

Enterprise cloud adoption statistics show that this trend is helping businesses reduce their overall costs and establish a solid security policy.

18. In 2018, cloud adoption in the EU was just 26%.

(Tech Monitor)

Only 26% of European enterprises were using the cloud back in 2018. The top three spots on the adoption ladder were held by Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Of all participants, 55% were using advanced cloud services, 18% public cloud solutions, and 11% private cloud services. 

However, the statistics differed from region to region. While in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark at least 40% of enterprises used cloud technology, fewer than 10% of such businesses in Bulgaria and Romania did so.

These numbers have continued to increase; according to some recent cloud adoption statistics, 36% of EU enterprises used cloud computing in 2020.