Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Surpass $675 Billion in 2024

Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Surpass $675 Billion in 2024

Predicted Year-over-Year Growth of More Than 20% Spurred by GenAI-Enabled Applications at Scale

Dubai, UAE., May 28, 2024 — Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.4% to total $675.4 billion in 2024, up from $561 billion in 2023, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. This growth is being driven by generative AI (GenAI) and application modernization.

ā€œThe continued growth we expect to see in public cloud spending can be largely attributed to GenAI due to the continued creation of general-purpose foundation models and the ramp up to delivering GenAI-enabled applications at scale,ā€ said Sid Nag, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. ā€œBecause of this continued growth, we expect public cloud end-user spending to eclipse the one trillion dollar mark before the end of this decade.ā€

All segments of the cloud market are expected to see growth in 2024. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth at 25.6%, followed by platform-as-a-service (PaaS) at 20.6% (see Table 1).

Table 1. Worldwide Public Cloud Services End-User Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

 2023 Spending2023 Growth (%)2024 Spending2024 Growth (%)2025 Spending2025 Growth (%)
Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS)    142,934    19.5    172,449    20.6    211,589    22.7
Cloud Application Services (SaaS)  205,998  18.1  247,203  20.0  295,083  19.4
Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS)    66,162    7.5    72,675    9.8    82,262    13.2
Cloud Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)    2,708    11.4    3,062    13.1    3,437    12.3
Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS)    143,302    19.1    180,044    25.6    232,391    29.1
Total Market561,10417.3675,43320.4824,76322.1

Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding.

Source: Gartner (May 2024)

ā€œIaaS continues at a robust growth rate that is reflective of the GenAI revolution that is underway,ā€ said Nag. ā€œThe need for infrastructure to undertake AI model training, inferencing and fine tuning has only been growing and will continue to grow exponentially and have a direct effect on IaaS consumption.ā€

While cloud infrastructure and platform services are driving the highest spending growth, SaaS remains the largest segment of the cloud market in end-user spending. SaaS spending is projected to grow 20% to total $247.2 billion in 2024.

ā€œSaaS spend is driven by applications being modernized by independent software vendors to run in a SaaS-based consumption model,ā€ said Nag. ā€œOrganizations continue to increase their usage of cloud for specific use cases such as AI, machine learning, Internet of Things and big data which is driving this SaaS growth.ā€

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 19.8%, to total $7.3 billion in 2024 (see Table 2).

Table 2. MENA Public Cloud Services End-User Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

 2023 Spending2023 Growth (%)2024 Spending2024 Growth (%)2025 Spending2025 Growth (%)
Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS)1,504    16.91,805    20    2,275    26
Cloud Application Services (SaaS)2,103  13.12,505  19.1  3,004  20
Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS)1,093    4.81,195    9.3    1,404    17.5
Cloud Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)141  -1.2153  8.9  170  10.8
Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS)1,259    27.21,652    31.2    2,243    35.8
Total Market6,10014.67,30919.89,09624.4

Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding.

Source: Gartner (May 2024)

ā€œPublic cloud spending is expected to surge as companies in the MENA region are moving towards becoming fully digitalized corporations. Additionally, Middle Eastern countries are also looking for a common economic goal of becoming technology and data centric. Organizations are using cloud as an enabler of technologies such as AI and business analytics to enhance the capabilities,ā€ said Shailendra Upadhyay, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner.

Gartner clients can read more in ā€œForecast: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2022-2028, 1Q24 Update.ā€

Learn how to maximize the benefits of cloud computing in the complimentary Gartner ebookDevising an Effective Cloud Strategy.

Gartner CIO & IT Executive Conference 

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis on insights and trends shaping the future of IT and business, including accelerating business transformation, application modernization, infrastructure and operations at the Gartner CIO & IT Executive Conference, taking place September 23-25 inSĆ£o Paulo and November 19-21 inDubai. Follow news and updates from the conference on X using #GartnerCIO.

About Gartner for High Tech

Gartner for High Tech equips tech leaders and their teams with role-based best practices, industry insights and strategic views into emerging trends and market changes to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. Additional information is available atwww.gartner.com/en/industries/high-tech.

 Follow news and updates from Gartner for High Tech onXand LinkedInusing #GartnerHT. Visit the Gartner Newsroomfor more information and insights.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

# # #