As the light at the end of the Covid tunnel begins to emerge, businesses are continuing to spend big on cloud. This is according to a new report from analyst firm Canalys, which suggests Amazon Web Services (AWS) kept its leading position in the market.
However, the two main runners-up, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, are growing at pace.
Canalys claims businesses spent 35 percent more on cloud infrastructure services in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period last year. In total, they spent $41.8 billion (the first Q1 ever with spending north of $40bn), mostly on data analytics, machine learning, data center consolidation and application migration.
AWS grew 32 percent in Q1 2021 and accounted for 32 percent of the total cloud spend. Azure, on the other hand, grew by 50 percent for the third consecutive quarter. It now holds almost a fifth (19 percent) of the market, mostly thanks to increased cloud consumption and long-term customer commitments.
Google Cloud also grew by more than half (56 percent) and now holds seven percent of the overall market share. The company had been focusing on industry-specific solutions, machine learning, analytics and data management, Canalys says, claiming that the approach boosted its cloud-native development and accelerated cloud migration among its customers.
