Cloud computing infrastructure spending to surge, says IDC

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Global cloud infrastructure spending on server, storage and networking is expected to surge 18.9 percent in 2016 even as spending on traditional data center gear fades.

According to IDC, the spending on infrastructure for cloud environments will hit $38.2 billion in 2016. IDC noted that its tally excludes double counting between storage and server. Private cloud infrastructure spending will be up 11.1 percent to $13.9 billion in 2016 with public cloud delivering growth of 14.1 percent to $24.4 billion.

Spending on traditional data centers will fall 4 percent in 2016, but still account for 63.8 percent of total spending.

In the long run, IDC estimated that cloud infrastructure spending will grow at a 12.5 percent five year annual growth rate to $57.8 billion in 2020. Of that spending, public cloud providers will spend $37.5 billion on infrastructure in 2020 with private cloud spending hitting $20.3 billion.

Here's the snapshot of spending.

Among the categories of cloud infrastructure spending, Ethernet switches will grow at a 26.8 percent clip in 2016 with servers up 12.4 percent and storage up 11.3 percent.