Cloud infrastructure spend to surpass $90bn

Cloud infrastructure spending is forecasted to hit $90.2 billion in 2022, up 22% compared to 2021, and the highest annual growth rate since 2018 – according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

The US data company said that the increased forecast is partially driven by inflationary pressure and expectations of higher systems prices during 2022 as well as improvements in the supply chain in the second half of the year.

In its Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, IDC said that spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments increased 17.2% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22) to $18.3bn.

It suggested that this growth continues a series of “strong” year-on-year increases in spending on infrastructure products by both service providers and enterprises despite tight supply of some system components and disruptions in transportation networks.

At the regional level, IDC said annual spending on cloud infrastructure in 1Q22 increased in most regions. Asia/Pacific – excluding Japan and China (APeJC) – grew the most at 50.1%. Japan, Middle East and Africa, China, and the US all saw double-digit growth in spending.

Western Europe grew 6.4% but growth in Canada slowed to 1.2%. Central and Eastern Europe, affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine, declined 10.3%, while Latin America declined 11.3%.

IDC said it expects to see continuously strong demand for shared cloud infrastructure with spending predicted to surpass non-cloud infrastructure spending in 2022 for what the data company said would be the “first time”.

It predicts cloud infrastructure spending for most regions to grow, with four regions, APeJC, China, the US and Western Europe, expecting to post annual growth in the 20-25% range.

However, the data company has warned that the impact of the war will continue to “hurt” spending in Central and Eastern Europe, which is now expected to decline 54.6% in 2022.