Global Cloud IT Infrastructure Spending Forecast to Grow 26% in 2015

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According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, total cloud IT infrastructure spending (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) will grow by 26.4% in 2015 and will reach $33.4 billion, accounting for a third of all IT infrastructure spending, up from 28.1% in 2014. Private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 16.8% year over year to $11.7 billion, while public cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow by 32.2% in 2015 to $21.7 billion. In comparison, spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure will remain flat at $67 billion.

IDC expects that spending on cloud IT infrastructure will grow across all regions and all technologies. In most regions, growth in public cloud IT infrastructure spending will exceed growth in spending on private cloud IT infrastructure as public cloud service providers will continue to invest in expansion of their datacenters and service offerings.

For the five-year forecast period, IDC expects that cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6% and will reach $54.6 billion by 2019 accounting for 46.5% of the total spending on IT infrastructure. At the same time, spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure will decline at a -1.4% CAGR. Spending on public cloud IT infrastructure will grow at a slightly higher rate than spending on private cloud IT infrastructure – at 16.5% vs 14% CAGR. In 2019, IDC expects cloud service providers will spend $35.3 billion on IT infrastructure for delivering public cloud services, while spending on private cloud IT infrastructure will reach $19.2 billion.

"End users continue to evaluate various approaches to adopting cloud-based IT: some integrate public cloud service into their IT strategies, others choose to build their own private clouds or use third-party private cloud offerings, and some, seeing benefits in both, implement hybrid cloud strategies," said Natalya Yezhkova, Research Director, Storage Systems. "The breadth and width of cloud offerings only continue to grow, with an increasing universe of business- and consumer-oriented solutions being born in the cloud and/or served better by the cloud. This growing demand from the end user side and expansion of cloud-based offerings from service providers will continue to fuel growth in spending on the underlying IT infrastructure in the foreseeable future."

An interactive chart illustrating worldwide spending on traditional IT infrastructure, public cloud infrastructure, and private cloud infrastructure over the 2014-2019 forecast period is available here. Instructions on how to embed these graphics into online news articles and social media can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker is designed to provide clients with a better understanding of what portion of the server, disk storage systems, and networking hardware markets are being deployed in cloud environments. This Tracker will break out vendors' revenue by the hardware technology market into public and private cloud environments for historical data and also provide a five-year forecast by the technology market.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad. The IDC Tracker Chart app is also available for Android Phones and Android Tablets.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com.