China’s telecom sector had steady growth during January-May 2022 (Updated)

China’s telecommunication industry registered steady growth in the first five months of the year, with strong expansion in emerging businesses and 5G services, official data shows.

The telecom sector had 665 billion yuan (99.46 billion U.S. dollars) in total revenue during the period, up 8.5 percent year on year, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Emerging businesses, including those in the big data, cloud computing, internet data center and Internet of Things sectors, continued to expand notably in the period.

The combined revenue of the emerging businesses of China’s three telecom giants — China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom — surged 34.3 percent year on year to 128.3 billion yuan, accounting for 19.3 percent of the sector’s total revenue, the ministry said.

At the end of May, China had 1.7 million 5G base stations, accounting for 16.7 percent of the country’s mobile network base stations. Some 275,000 5G base stations were built in the first five months of the year.

The data also shows that 5G mobile phone users of the three telecom giants reached 428 million at the end of May, representing 25.8 percent of China’s total mobile phone users.

–>Much more telecom data in the Addendum below.

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Image by ADMC from Pixabay

At the end of May, China had a total of 1.7 million 5G base stations, accounting for 16.7% of the country’s mobile network base stations. According to the official data, a total of 275,000 5G base stations were built in the first five months of 2023.

China ended May 2022 with a total of 899.3 million subscribers classified as having 5G plans (even though many only had 4G endpoint devices), according to the carriers’ latest available figures.  China network operators recorded a net gain of 30.18 million 5G subscribers in May.

China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18.21 million 5G subscribers during last month. The operator said it ended May with 495.13 million 5G subscribers, compared to 221.95 million 5G customers in May 2021.

China Mobile had added a total of 108.32 million subscribers in the 5G segment during the first five months of the year.

Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 4.93 million 5G subscribers during May. The carrier ended the month with 179.70 million 5G subscribers.

Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.04 million 5G subscribers last month to take its total 5G subscribers base to 224.47 million. During the first five months of the year, the telco had added a total of 36.67 million 5G subscribers.

China expects to end this year with nearly 2 million 5G base stations, according to previous reports. Chinese carriers reportedly deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide during last year.

The country’s 5G networks now covers all prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of county-level urban areas and 80% of township-level urban areas across the country..

Earlier this year, the Chinese government had unveiled plans to more than triple the number of 5G base stations over the next four years, targeting a total of 3.64 million by end-2025.

Under this plan, China aims to have 26 5G base stations for every 10,000 people by the end of 2025. In comparison, in 2020, there were five 5G base stations for every 10,000 people in China.

China is expected to reach 892 million connections in the 5G segment in 2025, according to a report recently published by the GSMA.

According to the ‘The Mobile Economy China” report, GSMA expects 5G connections in the country to represent 52% of total mobile lines in 2025, compared to 29% in 2021.

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Addendum from MITI:

Indicator name unit end of the month

arrive

than the end of last year

net increase (+),

reduce(-)

year-on-year

increase(%)

Total landline subscribers million households 18170 100 0.2
Total mobile phone users million households 166249 1966 3.4
Of which: 5G mobile phone users million households 42819 7334 109.2
Of which: Mobile Internet users million households 143568 2003 4.3
Internet broadband access users million households 55868 2289 10.6
Of which: FTTH/O users million households 52976 2426 11.5
Among them: users with a rate of 100M or more million households 52291 2443 13.4
Among them: users with a rate above 1000M million households 5591 2135 358.6
Of which: urban broadband access users million households 39415 1606 10.8
rural broadband access users million households 16453 683 10.1
Number of IPTV (Internet TV) users million households 36392 1540 10.2
Number of Cellular IoT End Users million households 159 498 19 576 26.8 _
Fixed telephone penetration Department/100 people 12.9 0.1
Mobile phone penetration Department/100 people 117.9 1.5
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Update:  BEIJING, Aug. 27, 2022 (Xinhua) — China’s telecommunications sector logged steady expansion in the first seven months of this year, official data showed.

The combined industrial revenue rose 8.3 percent year on year to 944.2 billion yuan (about 137.87 billion U.S. dollars), according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Emerging businesses, such as big data, cloud computing, internet data centers and Internet of Things, expanded rapidly during the period. The emerging business revenue of China’s three telecom giants — China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom — surged 35.1 percent year on year to 184.3 billion yuan.

In breakdown, the revenue for cloud computing services soared 131.7 percent year on year, while that for big data and Internet of Things surged 60.3 percent and 25.9 percent, respectively.

Steady progress was also made in the construction of 5G base stations:  By the end of July, the number of 5G base stations in China had reached a total of nearly 1.97 million.

https://english.news.cn/20220827/13db7111ef6545abaca284f1d49e2371/c.html

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References:

http://english.news.cn/20220703/41a9776edd9d44c0ad055252c4e35818/c.html

https://www.miit.gov.cn/gxsj/tjfx/txy/art/2022/art_b8491abea6324484a19b5438b08761a4.html

China’s telecom sector revenues reach almost $100bn in Jan-May

FCC allows SpaceX to connect Starlink to boats, planes, moving vehicles

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday authorized Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet network with moving vehicles, green-lighting the company’s plan to expand broadband offerings to commercial airlines, shipping vessels and trucks.

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Starlink, a fast-growing constellation of internet-beaming satellites in orbit, has long sought to grow its customer base from individual broadband users in rural, internet-poor locations to enterprise customers in the potentially lucrative automotive, shipping and airline sectors.

“Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move,” the FCC said in its authorization published Thursday, echoing plans outlined in SpaceX’s request for the approval early last year.

SpaceX has steadily launched some 2,700 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2019 and has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers, including many who pay $110 a month for broadband internet using $599 self-install terminal kits.

The Hawthorne, California-based space company has focused heavily in recent years on courting airlines  for in-flight WiFi via Starlink backhaul, having inked its first such deals in recent months with Hawaiian Airlines and semi-private jet service JSX.  Delta Airlines has reportedly run some tests with SpaceX/Starlink.

“We’re obsessive about the passenger experience,” Jonathan Hofeller, Starlink’s commercial sales chief, said at an aviation conference earlier this month. “We’re going to be on planes here very shortly, so hopefully passengers are wowed by the experience.”

SpaceX’s proposal for ESIMs includes spectrum in the range of 12.2-12.7GHz – a slice of spectrum generally known as the 12GHz band. RS Access (a company funded by Michael Dell’s investment firm) and Dish Network opposed SpaceX’s proposed use of the 12GHz band based on interference concerns, but the FCC is still analyzing it and has yet to make a final ruling.

However, the FCC has concluded that authority of operations in the 12GHz band serves the public interest, as it will expand broadband into unserved and underserved areas. As a condition of the FCC’s approval, ESIM operations of SpaceX “must accept any interference received from both current and future services authorized” in the 12GHz band “and must not cause harmful interference to any authorized service, whether licensed or not,” the FCC’s Sullivan explained.

The FCC’s CONCLUSION (from the order):

We conclude that grant of SpaceX’s requests for ESIM authorizations and Kepler’s request for ESV authority, including for operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, as conditioned and set forth herein, will serve the public interest by enabling SpaceX and Kepler to offer expanded broadband capabilities and serve unserved and underserved areas.

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“Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move, whether driving an RV across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a US port, or while on a domestic or international flight,” the FCC’s international bureau chief, Tom Sullivan, wrote in the order (PDF).

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SpaceX, under an earlier experimental FCC license, has been testing aircraft-tailored Starlink terminals on Gulfstream jets and U.S. military aircraft.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has previously said that the types of vehicles Starlink was expected to be used with pursuant to Thursday’s authorization were aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs. Musk, also the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc, had said he didn’t see “connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, as our terminal is much too big.”

Photo credit:  Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

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FCC clearance will enable Starlink to pursue connectivity agreements more aggressively in markets such as aviation, which is already covered by competitors such as Viasat and Hughes Network Systems. Those companies rely on a much smaller number of geosynchronous (GEO) satellites sitting at higher orbits than Starlink’s LEO constellation. However, Hughes Network Systems is also in the LEO business  through its partnership with and investment in OneWeb.

Competition in the low-Earth orbiting satellite internet sector is fierce between SpaceX, satellite operator OneWeb, and Jeff Bezos’s Kuiper project, a unit of e-commerce giant Amazon.com which is planning to launch the first prototype satellites of its own broadband network later this year.

References:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-approves-spacexs-starlink-internet-use-with-ships-boats-planes-2022-06-30/

https://www.lightreading.com/opticalip-networks/fcc-clears-spacex-to-connect-starlink-to-boats-planes-other-moving-vehicles-/d/d-id/778794?

 

ITU-R Reports in Progress: International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) including IMT 2020

Working documents toward  preliminary draft new ITU-R reports from WP5D:

M.[IMT.MULTIMEDIA] – Capabilities of the terrestrial component of IMT-2020 for multimedia communications

M.[IMT.INDUSTRY] –  Addresses the usage, technical and operational aspects and capabilities of IMT for meeting specific needs of societal, industrial and enterprise usages.

M.[IMT.AAS] – Measurements and mathematical modelling of Advanced Antenna Systems (AAS) in IMT-2020 systems

M.[HIBS-CHARACTERISTICS] –  Related to WRC-23 agenda item 1.4 – Spectrum needs, usage and deployment scenarios, and technical and operational characteristics for the use of high-altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS) in the mobile service in certain frequency bands below 2.7 GHz

New draft Recommendations:

M.[FSS_ES_IMT_26GHz] – Guidelines to assist administrations to mitigate interference from FSS earth stations into IMT stations operating in the frequency bands 24.65-25.25 GHz and 27-27.5 GHz

References:

https://www.itu.int/md/R19-WP5D-C-1361/en

 

ITU-R Future Report: high altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS)

Draft new ITU-R report: Applications of IMT (4G, 5G) for Specific Societal, Industrial and Enterprise Usages

ITU-R Future Report: high altitude platform stations as IMT base stations (HIBS)

 

Virgin Media O2 deploys UK’s first 5G-connected hospital to transform healthcare

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) and the NHS have collaborated to build the UK’s ‘first 5G connected hospital,’ which they say will transform healthcare. The Maudsley Smart Hospital and Maudsley Smart Pharmacy trials are funded by NHS digital with tech provided by VMO2 and Nokia, and are designed to explore the efficiency, safety and security benefits of using 5G-connected technologies in hospitals, across the usual catch-all 5G adjacent sectors of IoT, AR and AI.

Two wards at al Bethlem Royal Hospital in South London are now using dedicated, near-real-time connectivity to power e-Observations, where clinicians use handheld devices to update patient records, saving valuable time and improving accuracy. It seems to be implied interacting with the equipment over 5G will be more efficient than using the hospital’s WiFi network.

The 5G trials will also include an IoT innovation lab and platform, in partnership with Bruhati (South London and Maudsley has made Bruhati its partner for providing IoT technology to the Trust). This will look at smart, connected use cases – including remotely monitoring medicine fridges to ensure drugs are stored at the optimum temperature and thereby reducing expensive waste, tracking the air quality inside wards, and monitoring occupancy of desks and meeting rooms in the hospital.

An Augmented Reality (AR) tool called Remote Expert will allow maintenance workers in other hospitals to pop on a helmet and remotely help fix problems in some way, while an AI tool called Spatial Insights generates anonymised heat maps of crowd movement from CCTV footage, which will apparently help them to better plan layouts in the future. There is also talk of smart devices and monitoring to reduce medicine waste and track the air quality in wards, which sounds useful enough.

Mike Smith, Large Enterprise & Public Sector Director at Virgin Media O2 Business said: “The NHS has been a cornerstone of British society for nearly 75 years, and today, we’re proud to announce the switch-on of the UK’s first 5G-connected hospital – showing how next-generation technology can help create a smarter, modern healthcare service for everyone. Our aim is to map out the rollout of wireless and smart hospital connectivity across the NHS estate over the next three to five years. Trials like this are the embodiment of our mission to upgrade the UK, and a clear sign of the role we can play in helping to shape the NHS of the future.”

Stuart MacLellan, Acting Chief Information Officer at South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust said: “Exploring and using the latest technology supports our core strategic aim to deliver outstanding mental health care for people who use our services, their carers and families. We are proud to be partnering with Virgin Media O2 Business to create the UK’s first 5G-connected hospital, which enables us to use digital innovations to improve patient outcomes. This is a very exciting step forward.”

Kester Mann, technology analyst and Director, Consumer and Connectivity at CCS Insight, said: “This is a landmark moment for the UK telecoms and healthcare sectors. Dedicated 5G in hospitals can open the door to a range of new applications such as real-time tracking of patients’ conditions, remote support and round-the-clock monitoring of medicines and equipment. Its high throughput and low-latency characteristics can also improve the efficiency and security of existing operations, making healthcare services smarter, more accurate and more effective.”

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If the NHS trials can demonstrate how the implementation of AI heatmaps for planning layouts and AR headsets for maintenance workers can start taking chunks out of how long it takes to be treated for immediate and long term conditions, then everyone will surely be behind rolling it out elsewhere.

References:

Virgin Media O2 Business switches on the UK’s first 5G-connected hospital with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

VMO2 and Nokia help create UK’s ‘first 5G connected hospital’

 

 

Rakuten Mobile in joint venture with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to expand 4G/5G network

Japanese wireless network operator Rakuten Mobile has established a new joint venture company in its domestic market with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to deploy base stations at existing power grid sites as it looks to further expand its 4G and 5G coverage in a more efficient way.

The new company, called Rakuten Mobile Infrastructure Solution, began operating in Tokyo on  July 1st. The entity has an initial nominal value of ¥300m (approximately $2.2m), with Rakuten Mobile owning a 51% stake in the venture and TEPCO holding the remaining 49% stake, the operator said in a statement (available in Japanese here).

Rakuten Mobile Infrastructure Solution is set to contribute to the telco’s vision for a stable communication environment by enhancing the efficiency of maintaining base stations through effective use of public assets. The new company will also look to develop installation specifications for Rakuten Mobile’s base station equipment and manage installation-related works.

The Japanese telecom industry upstart, which already covers 96% of the Japanese population with its 4G service, noted it is using “some power assets” to further build out its network.

Through the new company, Rakuten Mobile plans to expand its 4G and 5G networks, boost the density of base station deployments and “strengthen the development of communication infrastructure with the aim of providing stable services”. As it will use the existing power assets of TEPCO for the purpose (alongside the power company’s construction capabilities and know-how), the telco believes it can “improve the cost efficiency of base station maintenance”.

This is not the first engagement for the two companies: In March 2018, Rakuten Mobile secured an agreement to make use of TEPCO’s steel towers, power distribution poles, building roofs and other infrastructure, just a few months before it began building its greenfield cellular network, and in 2019 was part of a broader mobile operator initiative with TEPCO related to power grid infrastructure sharing.

References:

https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g/rakuten-mobile-teams-up-with-power-grid-firm-to-accelerate-4g-5g-rollout-44870/

https://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/

https://corp.rakuten.co.jp/news/press/2018/0306_01.html

Google’s Equiano subsea cable lands in Namibia en route to Cape Town, South Africa

Google’s high-capacity Equiano subsea cable has landed at Swakopmund in Namibia en route to its end point at Melkbosstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa.

The cable, which will link South Africa and Europe along Africa’s west coast, was landed in the seaside holiday town of Swakopmund late last week by landing partners Paratus Group and Telecom Namibia, which were contracted to build and operate the landing station.

Equiano is expected to be ready for commercial service in the fourth quarter of 2022 and will deliver up to 20 times the international capacity that was previously available in Namibia. Until now, Namibia has relied solely on the West Africa Cable System, or Wacs, for subsea Internet connectivity.

“This is a landmark event and a great day for Namibia’s digital transformation. We are very proud to be the Google landing partner, and infrastructure partner with Telecom Namibia, to deliver better connectivity to everyone in Namibia,” says Paratus Group CEO Barney Harmse in a statement.

“The Google Equiano cable shore landing is a major step in the development of our national telecommunications infrastructure,” said Telecom Namibia CEO Stanley Shanapinda. “The cable will ensure redundancy for Telecom Namibia and offers an alternative when other routes may be impaired.”

In South Africa, Openserve, the wholesale division of Telkom, will serve as the landing station partner for Equiano.

The company said in November 2021 that the 150Tbit/s (design capacity) Equiano system will come ashore at its landing station in Melkbosstrand, which already serves as the landing site for other submarine cables, including Sat-3, which follows a not dissimilar route to Europe as Equiano.

Openserve will offer terrestrial services connecting the Equiano cable to South African carrier-neutral data centres.

 © 2022 NewsCentral Media

References:

https://www.telecomreviewafrica.com/en/articles/general-news/2765-google-s-equiano-cable-announces-new-landing-point-in-africa

Google’s Equiano cable lands in Namibia

Future Market Insights: Lit Fiber Market to reach US$ 20B by 2032

The global lit fiber market is expected to witness an impressive growth rate of 16.7% over the forecasted years of 2022 to 2032, according to a new report by Future Market Insights, Inc. The lit fiber market size is anticipated to reach a valuation of around US$ 20 Billion by the end of year 2032 from the current valuation of US$ 4.28 Billion in 2022.

Lit fiber has been used in the IT and telecommunications sectors for a number of noteworthy applications since its beginnings. But in recent years, the sales of lit fiber have grown as a result of the discovery of various more unique applications.

Compared to conventional copper lines, lighted fiber is more durable and extremely resistant to the dangers and traffic found in the previous system. Over the years, the demand for lit fiber has strengthened as an active cable that is set up, controlled, and maintained exclusively by service providers.

Elevated level of data transfer via short- and long-distance communications is made possible by fiber optics that is observed to have strengthened the lit fiber market opportunities. For connectivity, industrial, IT and communications, and security applications, a number of international businesses have started providing illuminated fiber connectivity proliferating the market further.

Increased investment in research and development by key actors leads to the creation of new technologies, and advancements in fiber optic connectivity that is predicted to increase the competition among lit fiber market participants.

Key Takeaways from Market Study:

  • The overall growth of the global lit fiber market is estimated to be around US$ 15.7 Billion during the coming decade by following the average CAGR of 16.7%.
  • The global market for lit fiber is dominated by multi-modal fiber segment, which is estimated to grow at a rate of 16.3%, while the single-mode segment is projected to develop at the fastest pace of 17.2%.
  • The higher selling segment, which accounts for over 60% of the sales revenue, is the lit fiber on-net connectivity items that is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17% during the projection period. And from the other front, the off-net lit fiber segment has grown in popularity recently and is expected to increase the sales of lit fiber over the years 2022 to 2032.
  • With a market dominance the networking application segment have historically been the key driver of lit fiber industry expansion. However, due to the product’s growing popularity, a 31.7% growth rate in this segment is anticipated throughout the anticipated time frame.
  • Of the world’s major geographical areas, North America accounts for more than 28% of the global lit fiber market. In contrast, the Asia Pacific lit fiber market has recently picked up steam and is expected to increase at an above average CAGR from 2022 to 2032.

Competitive Landscape:

The global lit fibre industry is highly fragmented and is anticipated to see an increased competition in the coming days as a result of the existence of several illuminated fibre market rivals. The major lit fibre companies are prioritising growing their customer base and serving underdeveloped areas at the same time as their major strategy to penetrate wider market.

Some of the well-known market players are among

  • AT&T
  • Attice USA
  • Comcast
  • Crown Castle Fiber
  • Frontier
  • GigabitNow
  • Lumen
  • Spectrum Enterprise
  • Verizon
  • Zayo among others

Recent Developments in the Global Lit Fiber Market:

  • In line with the target of providing lit plus dark fibre connectivity at Coloblox’s ATL1 Atlanta data centre, FiberLight, LLC, which is a vendor of optical equipment, joined forces in August 2021.

References:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lit-fiber-market-to-reach-us-20-bn-by-2032–comprehensive-research-report-by-future-market-insights-inc-301579486.html

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/brochure/rep-gb-15116

Review of SideTrak Solo 17.3 inch portable monitor

This SideTrak Solo portable 17.3 inch monitor works great!

It was easy to set-up via Windows 10 laptop- plugged in HDMI cable for the audio/video and USB cable for power feeding from PC to monitor. Then changed Display settings to dual display from mirrored display in order to get 2 separate screens.

After set-up, you can drag a webpage from 1 screen to another which is very useful if you are doing research work or want to watch a video on 1 screen while working on the other screen.

The image clarity is better than on my new ACER laptop which was a pleasant surprise. You can adjust the volume UP or DOWN via the top & bottom buttons on the lower right side of the display.  The stand is very stable so it’s easy to move the monitor.

Because it’s portable, you can take it along with your laptop to do work or watch videos away from home/on the road.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with this product!

References:

Solo HD 17.3”

https://sidetrak.com/pages/reviews

IDC: Worldwide Public Cloud Services Revenues Grew 29% to $408.6 Billion in 2021 with Microsoft #1?

The worldwide public cloud services market, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service – System Infrastructure Software (SaaS – SIS), and Software as a Service – Applications, grew 29.0% year over year in 2021 with revenues totaling $408.6 billion, according to the International Data Corporation (IDCWorldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker.

Spending continued to consolidate in 2021 with the combined revenue of the top 5 public cloud service providers (Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce Inc., Google, and SAP) capturing nearly 40% of the worldwide total and growing 36.6% year over year. With offerings in all four deployment categories, Microsoft captured the top position in the overall public cloud services market with 14.4% share in 2021, followed closely by Amazon Web Services with 13.7% share.

“Organizations continued their strong adoption of shared public cloud services in 2021 to align IT investments more closely with business outcomes and ensure rapid access to the innovations required to be a digital-first business,” said Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC. “For the next several years, leading cloud providers will play a critical role in helping enterprises navigate the current storms of disruption (inflation, supply chain, and geopolitical tensions), but IT teams will also focus more on bringing greater financial accountability to the variable spend models of public cloud services.”

While the overall public cloud services market grew 29.0% in 2021, revenue for foundational cloud services* that support digital-first strategies saw revenue growth of 38.5%. This highlights the increasing reliance of enterprises on a cloud innovation platform built around widely deployed compute services, data/AI services, and app framework services to drive innovation. IDC expects spending on foundational cloud services (especially IaaS and PaaS elements) to continue growing at a higher rate than the overall cloud market as enterprises leverage cloud to overcome the current disruptions and accelerate their shift toward digital business.

“The last few years have demonstrated that in challenging times, businesses increasingly rely on cloud services to modernize their operations and deliver more value to customers,” said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, Cloud and Edge Infrastructure Services. “This trend is expected to continue as public cloud providers offer more ways of extending cloud services to on-premises datacenters and edge locations. These expanded deployment options reduce many barriers to migration and will facilitate the next wave of cloud adoption.”

“In the digital-first world, enterprises that are serious about competing for the long term use the lens of business outcomes to evaluate strategic technology decisions, which fuels the fast-growing ecosystem seen in the public cloud market,” said Lara Greden, research director, Platform as a Service, IDC. “Cloud service providers showed relentless drive to enhance the productivity of developers and overall speed of application delivery, including emphasis on containers-first and serverless-first approaches.”

“SaaS applications remain the largest and most mature segment of public cloud, with 2021 revenues that have now reached $177 billion. The tailwinds of the pandemic continued to fuel expedited upgrades and replacements of older systems in 2021, though company goals haven’t changed. Companies seek applications that will help increase enterprise intelligence, improve operational efficiency, and drive better decision making. Ease of use, ease of implementation and integration, streamlined workflows, data and analytical accessibility, and time to value are the key criteria driving purchasing decisions, though verticalization has also steadily increased as a key priority,” said Eric Newmark, group vice president and general manager of IDC’s SaaS, Enterprise Software, and Worldwide Services division.

Worldwide Public Cloud Services Revenue and Year-over-Year Growth, Calendar Year 2021 (revenues in US$ billions)
Deployment Category 2021 Revenue Market Share 2020 Revenue Market Share Year-over-Year Growth
IaaS $91.3 22.4% $67.3 21.3% 35.6%
PaaS $68.2 16.7% $49.1 15.5% 39.1%
SaaS – Applications $177.8 43.5% $143.9 45.4% 23.5%
SaaS – System Infrastructure Software $71.2 17.4% $56.4 17.8% 26.4%
Total $408.6 100% $316.7 100% 29.0%
Source: IDC Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker, 2H 2021

While both the foundational cloud services market and the SaaS – Applications market are led by a small number of companies, there continues to be a healthy long tail of companies delivering cloud services around the globe. In the foundational cloud services market, these leading companies account for nearly three quarters of the market’s revenues with targeted use case-specific PaaS services or cross-cloud compute, data, or network governance services. The long tail is more pronounced in the SaaS– Applications market, where customers’ growing focus on specific outcomes ensures that over two thirds of the spending is captured outside the top 5.

Analysis:

We remain SUPER SKEPTICAL about IDC’s claim that Microsoft beat out cloud rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) in capturing the largest share of global public cloud services revenue last year.  That conflicts with all our other resource checks!!!

IDC reported that Microsoft accumulated 14.4% of the market’s $408.6 billion in revenues last year, just a whisker ahead of the 13.7% that AWS snared. Microsoft has offerings in all four sections of the public cloud services market lumped by IDC into its report, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), system infrastructure SaaS, and application SaaS.

Salesforce, Google, and SAP rounded out the top five in IDC’s ranking, with those vendors capturing 40% of the total market. Overall market revenues increased 29% compared to the previous year.

SaaS applications brought in the most cloud services revenue with $177.8 billion, representing 23.5% growth from the year prior. IaaS accounted for $91.3 billion of revenue, followed by system infrastructure SaaS and PaaS.

Of the categories comprising IDC’s public cloud foundational services, PaaS saw the highest year-over-year growth at 39.1%, though it brought in the least 2021 revenue at $68.2 billion.

“Organizations continued their strong adoption of shared public cloud services in 2021 to align IT investments more closely with business outcomes and ensure rapid access to the innovations required to be a digital-first business,” IDC VP Rick Villars said in a statement.

In an increasingly digital world, enterprises that are truly thinking ahead use a business outcomes lens to make strategic decisions, and this is what fuels public cloud ecosystem growth, IDC PaaS Research Director Lara Greden explained.

Cloud service providers played their part in that growth this year with a “relentless drive” to improve developer productivity and speed of application delivery, “including emphasis on containers-first and serverless-first approaches,” she added.

Villars expects these cloud giants will continue to have a crucial role in helping enterprises solve persistent market challenges like supply chain disruption, inflation, and geopolitical tension.

“IT teams will also focus more on bringing greater financial accountability to the variable spend models of public cloud services,” Villars added.

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* Note: IDC defines Foundational Cloud Services as the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service – System Infrastructure Software (SaaS – SIS) market segments where the top eight public cloud services providers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Group, IBM, Tencent, Huawei, and Oracle) account for most of the revenue. These include the following key service portfolios:

  • Compute Services: Virtualized x86 Compute, Bare Metal Compute, Block Storage, Accelerated Compute, Other Compute, and Software-Defined Compute Software.
  • Data Services: Data Management Systems, Object Storage, File Storage, and Event Stream Processing Software.
  • App Framework Services: Developer-centric software to develop and deploy applications in the cloud, including lifecycle management. These services include Integration Software, Deployment-Centric Application Platforms, and AI Lifecycle Software.
  • Usage Multiplier Services: Services that encourage greater/more effective use of high value services by making it easier to adopt, connect, deploy, track, secure, and update those services. Includes load balancing and DNS as well as marketplaces and bundles of open-source software solutions.

References:

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS49420022

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/microsoft-bests-amazon-as-top-public-cloud-idc-reports/2022/07/

IDC’s New Public Cloud Numbers: Microsoft Azure Edged Out AWS in 2021

 

 

IDC: Microsoft Azure now tied with AWS as top global cloud services provider

 

 

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