Cloud now bigger than Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Cisco combined

Global spend on cloud services hit $233.4bn in 2019, says analyst firm IDC, and the biggest five players accounted for a third of it and grew faster than the chasing pack. IDC defines “cloud” as the combination of software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service (SaaS, IaaS and PaaS). The firm rates …

[Anonymous Coward]

Big cloud, big storm

[Efer Brick]

When it rains, it pours.

[Pascal Monett]

So the numbers are in

Everyone is going to The Cloud (TM) and, lo and behold !, now The Cloud (TM) is where the big money is being made.

What a surprise. Not.

Cloud evangelists have been pushing us in that direction for at least a decade already. It's no surprise that, with the largest multinational corporations throwing tens of billions into The Cloud (TM) and refining their offerings every year, that money is to be made there.

We're back to the mainframe server paradigm of the 70s and 80s, except that now, the mainframe belongs to someone else, you only get a slice of it, you can't discuss conditions and, when your link goes down for whatever reason, you can only wait for the mainframe operator to resolve the issue. Oh, and if you have trouble, a million other people probably do as well.

Yay progress.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So the numbers are in

"We're back to the mainframe server paradigm of the 70s and 80s"

Maybe in a simplistic diagram or for a SaaS provider, but the IaaS/PaaS providers provide more flexibility than mainframes ever did both in terms of access and scalability while SaaS providers tend to be more flexible around licensing. While there maybe issues around lock-in or migrating between providers the costs of doing so still look tiny compared to platform swaps in the mainframe world.

[Efer Brick]

Re: So the numbers are in

>>mainframe belongs to someone else

As was often the case in back then.

[a_yank_lurker]

Re: So the numbers are in

All the cloud really does is shuffle hardware and wetware around. Someone has to do the work and it has to run on something. So the real question for a company is how to do you want to pay for the hardware and wetware with the corollary being what split between in-house and out-house

[Anonymous Coward]

Cloudy Business

I would never consider using Google or Oracle for any cloud business.

[big_D]

Re: Cloudy Business

Or any US based business at the moment... Until the replacement for Safe Harbour erm, Privacy Shield comes along, that can guarantee that the data is held safely and safe from FISA, Patriot Act and National Security Letters...

[Chris the bean counter]

I expect Amazon will go after SaaS next

Based on their internal systems or open source ERP etc systems.

Yes that is in competition with their customers but they have form.

[Coyote63]

When using their Exadata cloud or cloud at customer solutions - Oracle insist all the data is encrypted and that the customer holds the keys. that way if the FBI or whoever comes knocking for the data - they can have it - but they will need to get the keys from the customer.