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Demand for cloud-enabling infrastructure products soared in 2017, IDC research shows
IDC's latest cloud IT infrastructure market tracker shows the demand for public and private cloud-enabling servers, storage and Ethernet switches is showing no signs of slowing
The total revenue generated from sales of cloud-enabling hardware during 2017 is on course to be twice as high as in 2013, IDC research shows.
The analyst house has published its third quarter analysis of the global Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, which shows revenue from sales of cloud-enabling server, storage and Ethernet switching topped $11.3bn during the third quarter of 2017.
This figure is 25.5% up on the same quarter in 2016, and is being primarily driven by public cloud providers, rushing to kit out their datacentres, in response to growing enterprise demand for off-premise services.
IDC’s data shows the revenue generated from sales of public cloud-enabling hardware grew 32.3% year-on-year, and hit $7.7bn during the third quarter of 2017.
On the back of this growth, 30.2% of all IT infrastructure spend is now used to acquire servers, storage and Ethernet products that underpin public cloud environments, IDC confirmed.
The sales of private cloud-enabling hardware also continued apace during the quarter, with IDC reporting year-on-year revenue growth for this sector of 13.1% to $3.6bn.
Conversely, non-cloud IT infrastructure is up 8% on a year ago to $14.2bn and now represents 55.6% of the total amount spent on IT hardware across the globe.
While the final quarter of 2017 is still to be accounted for, IDC predicts the full-year cloud infrastructure revenue figure will be nearly double the amount generated during the course of 2013.
Kuba Stolarski, research director for Computing Platforms at IDC, described 2017 as a strong year for public cloud IT infrastructure growth, with related hardware sales accelerating through the year.
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“While hyperscalers such as Amazon and Google are driving the lion’s share of the growth, IDC is seeing strong growth in the lower tiers of public cloud and continued growth in private cloud on a worldwide scale,” said Stolarski.
“In the near term, new Intel and AMD platforms released during 2017 should aid in refresh and infrastructure expansion throughout the cloud IT infrastructure segment.”
From a geographical perspective, all regions – aside from Latin America (5%) – achieved double-digit growth for their cloud IT infrastructure revenue figures, with Central and Eastern Europe emerging as the areas with the fastest growing revenue figures, at 50.1% and 35.3%, respectively.
Western Europe, meanwhile, achieved an annual revenue growth rate of 24.6%, while the US chalked up 18.7% and Canada 22.5%. ... ... ... ..... ... ... ...
