TECH COS PROFIT FROM CLOUD BIZ

San Francisco, Feb. 16: With each passing quarter, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have been setting new records, while cloud computing has become the invisible backbone supporting much of our daily lives. Its potential to become an even bigger part of people's daily existence is sky-high.

USES

The rising popularity of the cloud has gone hand-in-hand with that of 4G broadband technology and of smartphones: The combined power of the network and of servers makes it possible for us to listen to music, to watch videos, to work remotely, to post on social media or to request a ride and watch it arrive, in real time, on a smartphone map. Companies and individuals can buy not just cloudbased storage but also processing power, Internet services and software, all of it situated not in one’s computer or smartphone but in huge data centres.

There are now even cloud services for video games, which require enormous amounts of data and extremely rapid response times.

“Cloud gaming,” as with other uses, lets users dispense with expensive and fast-outdated equipment.

MARKET Most big companies and institutions now access the cloud either through their own private servers or as a client of a public cloud provided by a company such as Amazon, Microsoft or Google.

These big providers offer an array of options, from simple hosting to ultra-complete online services, with an a la carte menu of tools and software, and with programs ensuring maintenance and security.

The public cloud can thus provide savings while also allowing greater flexibility as users' needs evolve.

In practice, many companies choose a hybrid approach, melding the lower cost, greater power and high adaptability of the public cloud with the comforting security of a private cloud.

“Companies on average use about three different publiccloud providers,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.

While some companies grew up in the data world, he added, “let’s not forget that lots of companies have been moving slowly and cautiously; plenty of companies are just getting started.”

In 2020, the market for the public cloud is expected to reach $266 billion, a 17 percent increase over 2019, according to Gartner Consulting.

And market research firm IDC predicts a near-doubling of the market by 2023, to $500 billion. The 2006 launch of Amazon Web Services gave the online giant a huge lead over its competitors. Analysts put its current share of the global public-cloud market at 30 to 50 per cent.