Cloud major growth drivers for Microsoft, Google

Given the momentum of digital transformation and the subsequent push to cloud adoption by organistions and companies, cloud providers are forecasting double digit revenue. 

Microsoft’s cloud revenue for the quarter was $23.4 billion, a spike of 32 per cent year-over-year (YoY). 

Revenue from Azure and other cloud services jumped 46 per cent for the quarter. 

Microsoft on Tuesday forecast a sharp spike in revenue growth for the next fiscal year, riding on the back of its cloud computing services. 

The company’s overall revenue was $ 49.4 billion, an increased by 18 per cent YoY in the quarter, compared with the previous year which stood at 20 per cent, according to a statement. 

Google’s parent Alphabet too excelled in its cloud business. Search and Cloud were the biggest drivers of growth. 

The company’s Cloud revenue, which just launched its media CDN, based on the same platform that carries YouTube’s video, surged a staggering 43 per cent YoY, generating $5.8 billion. 

Also read: How enterprises can ensure success with multi-cloud strategies

Cloud storage is gaining popularity over time as it is more secure and cost effective when deployed at scale than an on premise server. Even in case of property or equipment damage, the data remains safe. 

Research firm Gartner said that the ongoing pandemic and the surge in digital services are making cloud the centerpiece of new digital experiences. 

“The adoption and interest in public cloud continues unabated as organizations pursue a “cloud first” policy for onboarding new workloads. Cloud has enabled new digital experiences such as mobile payment systems where banks have invested in startups, energy companies using cloud to improve their customers’ retail experiences or car companies launching new personalisation services for customer’s safety and infotainment,” said Garther’s Milind Govekar, distinguished vice president in a Gartner report. 

Cloud business of thriving on the back of digital transformation and is definitely major growth drivers for its providers. 

According to estimates by market researcher, MarketsandMarkets, the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $445.3 billion in 2021 to $947.3 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3% during the forecast period. While technology spending in APAC has increased, the setback due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic is imminent. The cloud technology adoption is expected to increase in sectors where the work from home initiative is helping to sustain enterprise business functions. 

“The increasing volume of data generation in websites and mobile apps, the rising focus on delivering customer-centric applications for driving customer satisfaction, and the growing need to control and reduce Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX) are a few factors driving the growth of the emerging technologies. Emerging technologies, such as big data, AI, and Machine Learning (ML), are gaining traction, leading to the growth of the cloud computing market globally,” the MarketsandMarkets report further said. 

Although the concept of cloud was technically launched in the mid 1990s, it became mainstream in the mid 2000s, with the coming of the ‘big3’ — Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). With time we have seen these companies driving the cloud market. 

According to a Statista report, “In the fourth quarter of 2021, the most popular vendor in the cloud infrastructure services market, Amazon Web Services (AWS), controlled 33 per cent of the entire market. Microsoft Azure takes second place with 22 per cent market share, followed by Google Cloud with nine per cent market share.”