The cloud computing industry continues to see an increased uptake and growing popularity. It became integral to the digital world as corporations continue to adopt it or update their existing platforms.

Notably, cloud computing and storage empowered video conferencing, gaming, e-commerce shopping, remote project collaboration, online classes, editing, etc. It also found applications in social networking, messaging apps and streaming services. Cloud computing is supporting organizations in remotely processing a lot of information, developing, and running key applications and services.

The shift to digitization is set to remain robust even after the pandemic, keeping companies dependent on cloud-based services to drive that change. In the post-pandemic period, cloud-technology adoption is projected to witness robust growth in sectors where the work-from-home or hybrid working initiatives are helping sustain business functions.

Notably, the global cloud computing market size is projected to rise from $380.25 billion in 2021 to $1,614.1 billion by 2030, seeing a CAGR of 17.4%, per a Precedence Research report. In fact, North America dominated the global cloud computing market in 2021 by accounting for 40% of the revenues.

Bright Prospects for Cloud Computing Industry

The world is enjoying the benefits of this cost-effective technology. By switching to cloud computing, corporations can avoid making huge investments for expensive hardware and software applications or running on-site data centers.

The cloud computing platform also offers a high degree of reliability. It provides simple and economic measures to handle issues like data backup and other digital storage-related concerns as data mirroring is allowed at several sites.  

Moreover, this cutting-edge technology is fast and secure. The cloud computing services provide consumers with a higher level of flexibility and reduce capacity- planning burden.  The cloud computing platform providers offer a widespread set of policies, technologies and controls that enhance security and ensure data protection. These also secure apps and other infrastructure from cyber threats.

Notably, Gartner reportedly projected that the end-user spending on public cloud computing should increase 20.4% in 2022, globally, to a total of $494.7 billion, surging from $410.9 billion in 2021. The end-user spending is projected to climb to about $600 billion in 2023.

Commenting on the platform, Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner said that “Cloud is the powerhouse that drives today’s digital organizations. CIOs are beyond the era of irrational exuberance of procuring cloud services and are being thoughtful in their choice of public cloud providers to drive specific, desired business and technology outcomes in their digital transformation journey, ” according to the Gartner report.

Integration of cloud computing with AI, big data and IoT will help businesses touch new levels of success in innovation. The global cloud revenues are expected to come in at $474 billion in 2022, surging from $408 billion in 2021, as stated in a Gartner report. It is also being projected that above 85% of organizations will adopt a cloud-first principle by 2025, per the same Gartner report.

In this regard, Milind Govekar, distinguished vice president at Gartner, reportedly commented that “Adopting cloud-native platforms means that digital or product teams will use architectural principles and capabilities to take advantage of the inherent capabilities within the cloud environment. New workloads deployed in a cloud-native environment will be pervasive, not just popular and anything noncloud will be considered legacy.”

Furthermore, Gartner projects the higher uptake of cloud-computing technology as a proportion of IT spending post pandemic. In fact, it expects the IT spending on public cloud computing within several addressable market segments to surpass the investments for traditional IT in 2025.

Major Players Widening Cloud Computing Suite

Recent earnings results of Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG) benefited from the surge in their cloud-computing businesses.

Amazon is a prominent provider of cloud infrastructure as a service to enterprise customers. The expanding customer base of Amazon Web Services (AWS) driven by its expanding cloud offerings will continue to support Amazon's leadership in the global cloud market.

Meanwhile, Alphabet is gaining market share in cloud computing on the back of its strengthening cloud service offerings. Notably, GOOGL’s cloud offerings — Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace — continue to gain momentum in the growing cloud computing market. Further, Google’s growing investments in infrastructure, security, data management, analytics and AI remain major positives. GOOGL's strategic partnerships and acquisitions, and the growing number of data centers are helping it increase its cloud footprint, globally. Notably, Google Cloud’s first-quarter 2022 revenues rose 43.8% year over year to $5.8 billion, accounting for 8.6% of the quarterly revenues.

Microsoft is also progressing in the cloud computing market. Through Azure, it offers cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services, platforms and content. In fact, Azure and other cloud services’ revenues, surged 46% year over year (up 49% at constant currency), driven by robust growth in consumption-based business and recovery across industries in third-quarter fiscal 2022.

Cloud Computing ETFs to Keep a Track

Here we highlight a few ETFs that can gain from the growing demand for cloud computing:

First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY Quick QuoteSKYY - Free Report)

First Trust Cloud Computingseeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield, before fees and expenses, of the ISE CTA Cloud Computing Index. It tracks the performance of companies actively involved in the cloud computing industry. The fund holds about 71 securities in its basket, with VMware, Inc., Pure Storage, Inc. (Class A), Oracle Corporation and Lumen Technologies Inc making the top four holdings. SKYY has an AUM of $3.94 billion and an expense ratio of 0.60%.

Global X Cloud Computing ETF (CLOU Quick QuoteCLOU - Free Report)

Global X Cloud Computing ETFseeks to invest in companies positioned to benefit from the increased adoption of cloud computing technology, including companies, principal business of which involves offering computing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), managed server storage space and data-center real-estate investment trusts, and/or cloud and edge computing infrastructure and hardware. The fund holds about 36 securities in its basket with cloud companies like DigitalOcean Holdings, Zoom Video Communications-A and Salesforce, Inc. holding the top three positions. CLOU has an AUM of $739.1 million and an expense ratio of 0.68% (read: 5 Top-Ranked ETFs to Consider for June).

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF (WCLD Quick QuoteWCLD - Free Report)

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, an equally weighted index designed to measure the performance of the emerging public companies, focused on delivering cloud-based software to customers. Anaplan Inc, Qualys Inc and Tenable Holdings Inc hold the top three positions in the fund. WCLD has an AUM of $711.3 million and an expense ratio of 0.45% (read: 5 Beaten-Down ETFs to Buy at Attractive Prices).

Wedbush ETFMG Global Cloud Technology ETF  

Wedbush ETFMG Global Cloud Technology ETFis designed to access to the cloud infrastructure and cloud “enabler” companies, which are expected to drive the next 10 years with an estimated $1 trillion in cloud spending. IVES seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dan Ives Global Cloud Technology Prime Index. IVES holds about 77 securities in its basket. It has an AUM of $30.1 million and an expense ratio of 0.68%.