TL;DR:
- Cloud adoption is accelerating, with $5 billion more spent on cloud infrastructure services in Q2 2021 compared to the previous quarter.
- 80% of U.S. enterprises have accelerated AI adoption in the past two years, allocating significant budgets for deployment efforts.
- Global investment in AI systems is projected to exceed $50 billion in 2020, reaching $110 billion by 2024.
- The cloud enhances AI training, inferencing performance, cost-effectiveness, and security against attacks.
- Public cloud infrastructure is crucial for supporting massive data storage and scalable computing required for AI applications.
- Cloud vendors offer tools and services that facilitate AI development and operation without significant upfront investments.
- The symbiosis between the cloud and AI is accelerating the adoption of both technologies.
- Experts predict AI will heavily influence IT infrastructure decisions, accounting for up to 50% of total public cloud services revenue by 2025.
- The global public cloud computing market is set to exceed $362 billion in 2022, ensuring continued growth and opportunities.
Main AI News:
The rapid adoption of cloud technologies continues to fuel unprecedented growth in the business landscape. Recent data from Canalys reveals that in Q2 2021, companies invested an additional $5 billion in cloud infrastructure services compared to the previous quarter. This surge can be attributed to various factors, including the heightened emphasis on business resiliency planning. However, it also underscores the profound impact of AI adoption on enterprise IT budgets, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.
According to a recent survey, a staggering 80% of U.S. enterprises have accelerated their AI adoption over the past two years. These organizations recognize the vital role of AI in their digital transformation initiatives and are willing to allocate substantial budgets ranging from $500,000 to $5 million per year for AI deployment efforts. IDC projects that global investment in AI systems will surpass $50 billion in 2020, a significant increase from $37.5 billion in 2019. Furthermore, by 2024, this figure is expected to skyrocket to an impressive $110 billion.
The cloud plays a pivotal role in driving this AI revolution, offering unparalleled advantages in terms of AI training, inferencing performance, cost reduction, and enhanced security against potential attacks. Many companies lack the infrastructure and expertise required to implement AI applications internally, leading them to turn to public cloud infrastructure. TierPoint, a leading provider of hybrid IT solutions, highlights that public cloud infrastructure is essential for supporting massive data storage and scalable computing capabilities necessary for processing vast amounts of data and AI algorithms. Even organizations with private data centers often choose to avoid the complexities of ramping up their hardware, networking, and storage systems to accommodate big data and AI applications. Sanjeev Vohra, Accenture’s global lead of applied intelligence, affirms the transformative impact of cloud and data convergence in empowering companies with advanced computing capabilities, greater power, and unmatched flexibility.
Simultaneously, cloud vendors are actively fueling the demand for AI by offering a wide array of tools and services that streamline the development, testing, enhancement, and operation of AI systems, all without substantial upfront investments. These offerings include hardware optimization for machine learning, automated speech recognition and text analysis APIs, productivity-boosting machine learning modeling systems, and comprehensive AI development workflow platforms. A 2019 whitepaper by Deloitte highlighted real-world examples such as Walgreens utilizing Microsoft’s Azure AI platform to revolutionize healthcare delivery models and a leading shipbuilder leveraging Amazon Web Services to develop and manage autonomous cargo vessels. The American Cancer Society also leverages Google’s machine learning cloud services for automated tissue image analysis. The symbiotic relationship between the cloud and AI is accelerating the adoption of both technologies, and experts predict that AI workloads will heavily influence IT infrastructure decisions in the coming years. In fact, Gartner forecasts that AI will account for up to 50% of total public cloud services revenue by 2025, effectively adding another significant market segment to the existing cloud services landscape.
With the global public cloud computing market projected to exceed $362 billion in 2022 and the average cloud budget currently standing at $2.2 million, it is evident that investments in the cloud are set to surge unabated. As long as AI maintains its trajectory of innovation and advancement, the cloud industry will experience an extraordinary boom, reaping substantial rewards in the process. The symbiotic relationship between AI and the cloud has laid the foundation for a new era of business growth and transformation, one that promises immense opportunities for enterprises willing to seize them.
Conclusion:
The rapid adoption of cloud technologies and the growing embrace of AI have ushered in a transformative era of enterprise growth. Companies are investing substantial budgets in AI deployment, recognizing its importance in digital transformation efforts. The cloud’s ability to enhance AI capabilities, coupled with the offerings of cloud vendors, has fueled this revolution. As AI becomes a dominant workload in IT infrastructure decisions, the market is poised for significant growth. The projected surge in the global public cloud computing market highlights the immense opportunities that lie ahead for businesses that harness the power of AI and leverage the cloud to their advantage.
