- Overall cloud spend will rise 21.4% to $723.4 billion in 2025, Gartner claims
- However, the data set no longer includes some key areas
- 2024 performance is lower than anticipated
New data from Gartner has claimed global overall cloud spend is set to continue growing into 2025, but reading between the lines makes the certainty of some areas is more questionable.
As 2024 draws to a close, Gartner predicts growth seen across four key categories – cloud application infrastructure services (Paas), cloud application services (SaaS), cloud desktop-as-a-service (Daas) and cloud system infrastructure services (Iaas) – will level out at 19.2%, a touch under the 19.9% saw in 2023.
That said, there are some omissions from the data indicating not all areas of cloud spend are set to be so successful.
Cloud spend could be slowing
Overall cloud spend is predicted to rise dramatically, from $595.7 billion in 2024 to $723.4 billion in 2025, marking a healthy increase of 21.4% – more than what we've seen in the past two years.
However, the cloud market is so big that predicting accurately can be extremely difficult, and even minor trends could have a significant knock-on effect.
Key to the concern is Gartner has slowly been pulling categories from its predictions. In 2023, the firm took out cloud management and security services, and this year business process as a service (BPaaS) has been removed. Neither seem to have been packaged up into any of the remaining categories.
Of the remaining four categories, DaaS is predicted to see the smallest change in 2025, up just 0.5%. This year and last, the sector grew 0.6%. It might just be a tenth of a percentage point, but in terms of change, 0.5% is a 16.7% decrease over 0.6%.
The figures also reveal that IaaS compute, storage and networking capacity spend is set to be lower than previously anticipated earlier this year.
The news comes as many businesses consider reverting from the cloud to local infrastructure. Cloud used to be a cheaper and more flexible alternative, but the margin has decreased significantly.
Separately, Canalys Senior Director Rachel Brindley said that companies must “exercise caution to avoid overspending or inefficient resource allocation.”
Brindley added: “Ensuring the sustainability of these investments over time will be vital to maintaining long-term financial health and competitive advantage.”
You might also like
- We’ve listed the best cloud computing services
- Getting up to speed with AI is fuelling major cloud investment
- Check out our roundup of the best cloud storage and best cloud backup tools
