Gartner: Global Public Cloud Spending to Reach Nearly $500 Billion in 2022

Gartner projects that global end-user spending on public cloud services will approach a massive $495 billion in 2022. That’s more than a 20% increase from 2021, where spending totaled almost $411 billion. In 2023, Gartner expects spending to reach nearly $600 billion.

Look for end-user spending growth on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) this year to be the biggest, at nearly 31%. Desktop as a service (DaaS) is next, at almost 27%, and platform as a service (PaaS) at 26%. The new reality of hybrid work is prompting organizations to move away from powering their workforce with traditional client computing solutions. These include desktops and other physical in-office tools. Rather, there’s a push toward DaaS, which is driving spending to reach $2.6 billion in 2022. Demand for cloud-native capabilities by end-users for PaaS has grown to nearly $110 billion in spending.

Emerging Technologies

Gartner’s Sid Nag

Sid Nag is research vice president at Gartner.

“Cloud-native capabilities such as containerization, database platform as a service (dbPaaS) and artificial intelligence/machine learning contain richer features than commoditized compute such as IaaS or network as a service,” Nag said. “As a result, they are generally more expensive, which is fueling spending growth.”

SaaS remains the largest public cloud services market segment, forecast to reach nearly $177 billion in end-user spending in 2022. Gartner expects steady uptake as enterprises take multiple routes to market with SaaS, including via cloud marketplaces. They’ll continue to break up larger, monolithic applications into composable parts for more efficient DevOps processes.

Emerging technologies in cloud computing, including hyperscale edge computing and SASE, are disrupting adjacent markets and forming new product categories. This creates additional revenue streams for public cloud providers.

“Cloud is the powerhouse that drives today’s digital organizations,” Nag said. “CIOs are beyond the era of irrational exuberance of procuring cloud services and are being thoughtful in their choice of public cloud providers to drive specific, desired business and technology outcomes in their digital transformation journey.”