Is your head in the cloud?

With so many of us still working from home, and many companies transitioning to a fully functional remote workforce that can produce at the same levels they once did pre-coronavirus, the role of the cloud will continue to increase in all aspects of life, not just security.

As Brivo CEO Steve Van Till said during his presentation, “The Cloud Won. Now What?” at SecurityNext back in February, cloud-based technology “has finally won over the hearts and minds of even the most reluctant late adopters among us.”

The emergence of COVID and more remote workers is only going to hasten the speed at which the cloud is adopted universally.

The latest Gartner research published earlier this month forecasts worldwide public cloud revenue to grow at an impressive 18.8 percent growth rate over the next two years, going from $257.9 billion in 2020 to $364.1 billion in 2022. This follows a 6.3 percent growth rate from 2019 to 2020.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were a few initial hiccups but cloud ultimately delivered exactly what it was supposed to,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “It responded to increased demand and catered to customers’ preference of elastic, pay-as-you-go consumption models.”

Gartner found that software as a service (SaaS) remains the largest market segment and is forecast to grow to $104.7 billion in 2020, up from $102.1 billion in 2019. SaaS is set to take off in the next two years, growing to $140.6 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 15.9 percent from 2020-2022.

“The continued shift from on-premises license software to subscription-based SaaS models, in conjunction with the increased need for new software collaboration tools during COVID-19, is driving SaaS growth,” according to Gartner.

Gartner noted the second-largest market segment is cloud system infrastructure services, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is forecast to grow 13.4 percent to $50.4 billion in 2020, and then to $81 billion in 2022 — a whopping 26.8 percent CAGR over that two-year period.

“The effects of the global economic downturn are intensifying organizations’ urgency to move off of legacy infrastructure operating models,” researchers noted.

Public cloud services in many regions is expected to grow rapidly as economies reopen and more normal economic activity resumes, with regions such as North America expecting to return to higher spending levels as early as 2022.

“The use of public cloud services offer CIOs two distinct advantages during the COVID-19 pandemic: cost scale with use and deferred spending,” said Nag. “CIOs can invest significantly less cash upfront by utilizing cloud technology rather than scaling up on-premises data center capacity or acquiring traditional licensed software.”

He continued, “Any debate around the utility of public cloud has been put aside since the onset of COVID-19. For the remainder of 2020, organizations that expand remote work functionality will prioritize collaboration software, mobile device management, distance learning educational solutions and security, as well as the infrastructure to scale to support increased capacity.”

Looks like it is finally cool to have your head in the cloud!