According to recent data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on compute and storage infrastructure for cloud deployments saw a sharp increase in the second quarter of 2024. Investments in both shared and dedicated cloud IT environments surged by 61.5% year-over-year, reaching $42.9 billion. This outpaced growth in non-cloud infrastructure, which also saw substantial gains, rising 41.4% to $19.4 billion during the same period.
The growth in the cloud infrastructure market is primarily fueled by heightened investments in artificial intelligence (AI), which have particularly influenced server sales and increased enterprise storage spending. Despite a lower growth rate in unit demand of 17.7%—attributed to rising average selling prices (ASPs), particularly in GPU server shipments—the overall momentum remains robust.
In 2Q24, spending on shared cloud infrastructure reached $35.3 billion, a notable 74.9% increase from the previous year, solidifying its dominance with 56.6% of total infrastructure spending. In contrast, dedicated cloud infrastructure grew at a slower pace of 19.2%, amounting to $7.6 billion for the quarter.
Looking ahead, IDC forecasts total cloud infrastructure spending to grow 48.8% in 2024, reaching $164.0 billion. Shared cloud infrastructure is expected to rise by 57.9% year-over-year to $131.9 billion, while dedicated cloud infrastructure will experience a 20.4% growth, hitting $32.1 billion. Non-cloud infrastructure spending is projected to grow at a modest rate of 11.7%, reaching $67.5 billion in 2024.
IDC’s service provider category—which includes cloud service providers, digital service providers, communications service providers, hyperscalers, and managed service providers—reported a collective spending of $41.8 billion on compute and storage infrastructure in 2Q24, marking a 64.2% year-over-year increase. This expenditure accounted for 67.2% of the overall market. Additionally, non-service providers, such as enterprises and government entities, increased their spending to $20.5 billion, reflecting a 38.2% year-over-year growth.
On a geographic scale, cloud infrastructure spending showed remarkable year-over-year growth across all regions in 2Q24. The Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China) led with a staggering 110.7% increase, followed by Japan at 98.1%, the USA at 72.1%, and Canada at 53.8%. Other regions also demonstrated solid growth, with Central & Eastern Europe, Western Europe, China, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America increasing by 48.7%, 27.7%, 24.8%, 23.4%, and 9.7%, respectively.
In the long term, IDC anticipates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1% for cloud infrastructure spending between 2023 and 2028, projecting it will reach $253 billion by 2028 and account for 76.4% of total compute and storage infrastructure expenditure. Shared cloud infrastructure is expected to represent 78.6% of total cloud spending, growing at an 18.9% CAGR to reach $198.8 billion, while dedicated cloud infrastructure spending is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 15.3%, reaching $54.3 billion. Non-cloud infrastructure is also expected to rebound, with a 5.3% CAGR, reaching $78.3 billion in 2028. Service providers’ spending on compute and storage infrastructure is projected to grow at a 17.1% CAGR, reaching $233 billion by 2028.
Source: IDC
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