Amazon stays atop fast-growing cloud computing market

WASHINGTON: Amazon remained the dominant global cloud computing firm in 2020 as rivals including Microsoft, Alibaba and Google gained ground in the fast-growing market, a research firm said.

A Gartner survey released Monday showed the so-called "infrastructure as a service" market grew 40.7 percent last year to $64.3 billion.

Amazon held nearly 41 percent of the market last year, down from 45 percent in 2019 as its revenues grew 28 percent, according to Gartner.

Microsoft -- seen as a surging rival in the sector -- saw revenue growth of nearly 60 percent to capture almost 20 percent of the market.

Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner, said the market is growing as more businesses rely on cloud-based solutions, with the trend accelerating during the pandemic.

Nag said the market was also helped by a growing trend of "data sovereignty" with organizations seeking to keep their data in their home countries.

Gartner said Microsoft in particular benefitted from the pandemic as organizations shifted to the cloud for "critical" workloads, such as healthcare, manufacturing and e-commerce.

China-based Alibaba also had robust growth to reach a 9.5 percent market share while Google boosted its share to more than six percent.

Huawei, a Chinese firm targeted by US sanctions, saw revenue growth of more than 200 percent to capture a 4.2 percent market share and the number five position, according to Gartner.