Australian cloud spending to reach $13.8bn in 2021

Australian spending on cloud services is on track to reach $13.8 billion in 2021, before growing a further 23.4% next year to $16.7 billion, according to Gartner.

The research firm predicts that the Australian market will outperform the global average next year as companies continue to increase their cloud spending.

Gartner projects that global public cloud spending will exceed 45% of all enterprise IT spending, up from less than 17% in 2021.

This growth is being driven by key trends including the growing cloud ubiquity and new advances in wireless communications technology, according to Gartner VP Analyst Michael Warrilow.

“Multiple emerging technologies will enable Australia to overcome the tyranny of distance in coming years. Distributed cloud and broadband low-Earth-orbit satellite technology are just two examples that will unify Australians,” he said.

Meanwhile, growing geopolitical regulatory fragmentation, protectionism and industry compliance are driving the creation of new regional and vertical cloud ecosystems, and data services are stimulating the emergence of regional cloud ecosystems, he added.

“For the most part, in this increasingly complicated mix of cloud providers, Australian organisations will stick with the established global hyperscalers — coupled with selective use of local, value-added providers,” Warrilow said.

Other drivers of Australian cloud spending include the growing focus on sustainability and carbon neutrality, as well as growing adoption of managed AI and machine-learning-enabled cloud services from the hyperscale providers, he added.

“Infrastructure must become programmable and automated. Modern IT infrastructure, whether deployed in the data centre, consumed in the public cloud or both, requires less manual intervention and routine administration than its legacy equivalents,” Warrilow said.

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