Almost every business has at least one toe dipped into the cloud, which offers several vital benefits to business networks. Still, it is interesting to see how the cloud has grown and changed in the relatively brief time it has been available to business leaders. Here are some of the most interesting statistics concerning cloud computing in 2020, which entrepreneurs can use to alter their cloud strategy and configurations.
The Size of the Cloud Computing Market
Facts about the size of the cloud are perhaps the most astonishing, and thus worth a look.
94 percent of enterprises use the cloud. According to Right Scale’s annual State of the Cloud Report, 91 percent of businesses use a public cloud and 72 percent a private cloud — but the largest group is hybrid cloud users, which account for 87 percent of companies.
A public cloud is a cloud service shared among different users. It tends to be the most economical cloud option — like an apartment within an apartment building. It gives businesses small, segregated spaces within a larger cloud structure. In contrast, a private cloud is akin to a single-family residence: independent from all other clouds. Though more expensive, private clouds can be larger and more secure than public clouds. Most businesses opt for both public and private cloud spaces to keep their most sensitive data safe and benefit from space and convenience cloud computing.
83 percent of workloads are in the cloud. The amount of enterprise resources running on the cloud has increased by roughly 20 percent every year since 2018. By migrating workloads to the cloud, businesses reduce the expense of managing workloads on-premises. Projections from before the coronavirus crisis put on-prem workloads at around 27 percent, but thanks to mandates to close workplaces and manage teams remotely, that figure is likely much, much lower.
The global cloud market is worth more than $330 billion. In 2010, the cloud market was valued at less than $6 billion; the growth of value in the global cloud market should demonstrate its rampant adoption by businesses around the world. What’s more, the growth is not slowing down. Estimates by Grand View Research, Inc. suggest that in 2027, the cloud will be worth over $596 billion.
The Continued Risks of Cloud Computing
Perhaps the most important statistics for business leaders at every level are those concerning cloud security. Here is the most pressing data:
Every year, 70 percent of businesses experience at least one cloud security event. Admittedly, a security event is not synonymous with an attack or data leak; rather, it is the possibility of a security failure or the development of an issue that might impact security. Usually, events are recorded and analyzed to help an organization mitigate potential security risks. Recognizing security events requires comprehensive hybrid cloud security tools that monitor the cloud, provide access controls, encryption, and more.
Every month, organizations experience an average of 31.3 cloud threats. In contrast to security events, threats are definite risks to cloud security. A threat might be a brute-force attack on the cloud, a weak user password, malware on a user’s device, or a DDoS attack on the organization. Most threats tend to be benign and fail to result in a largescale data breach, but again, they must be recognized and addressed to ensure security.
Public cloud workloads experience 60 percent fewer security incidents. Despite the security risks present in the cloud — indeed, security seems to be a major obstacle for many organizations considering cloud migration — the cloud is a much, much safer place than traditional computing environments. Public cloud providers guarantee a certain level of security; businesses themselves are unaware of or incapable of enacting on their own.
Conclusion
The cloud is a vast and fascinating resource, offering productivity and security to businesses around the globe. As is true of everything in the digital space, the cloud is bound to grow and change in the next few years; it might even be unrecognizable in 2030 or beyond. Still, the more businesses understand about the cloud today, the better equipped they will be to make computing decisions that benefit their organization and their customers. Hopefully, these statistics give business leaders more insight into their own cloud strategies, so they can build better solutions for tomorrow.
