New figures published by IDC earlier today show that cloud computing spend is picking up speed, reaching $41.7 billion this year. Representing 15.3 percent compound growth, the majority of investment will go into hardware – servers, storage and Ethernet switches.
Public cloud leads the charge
The Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker report indicates that public cloud will be the major beneficiary, accounting for 60.5 percent of spend. Further behind are off-premise private clouds (14.9 percent) and on-premises private cloud (13.1 percent).
Unsurprisingly, IDC analysts predict that spend on traditional data center deployments will continue to decrease.
On or off-site, someone has to pay
For public cloud subscribers, this increase in investment is great news – providers are spending heavily to ensure there is sufficient infrastructure available for their growth plans. Obviously this extra spend creates a dilemma for cloud providers – do they raise subscription costs, or take a hit on their profit margins?
Where cloud deployments, public or private, are reliant on OEM storage hardware, there is a significant additional cost in the form of official maintenance and support. For massive deployments, this cost may be acceptable. But for organizations deploying their private cloud, the impact of these costs is far greater.
Third party support and maintenance – making cloud affordable
An effective method for controlling maintenance costs is to choose a reputable third party provider. CDS provides OEM-class support and maintenance (including vendor-approved spares) at 70 percent less than an official contract for instance.
These savings can be increased by redeploying post-warranty hardware as part of a software-defined infrastructure. The SDS approach gives businesses all the benefits of cloud-scalable storage without significant capital spend. Which frees up cash for investment in other strategic projects.
Next steps
To learn more about making the most of your cloud hardware spend this year, give us a call.
– See more at: https://www.cds.net/blog/2017/04/cloud-data-center-spend-accelerates/#sthash.AYPPpJtd.dpuf