Cloud computing came into prevalence with the dotcom boom in the late 1990s, wherein digital tech companies started to deliver software over the internet. As companies such as Amazon matured in their own ability to offer what’s known as “software as a service” over the web, they started to offer others the ability to rent their virtual servers for a cost as well.
This was a lucrative value proposition. Cloud computing enables a pay-as-you-go model similar to a utility bill, rather than the huge upfront investment required to purchase, operate and manage your own data centre.
As a result, the latest statistics suggest more than 94 per cent of all enterprises use cloud-based services in some form.
A MARKET DOMINATED BY THREE COMPANIES
The global cloud market is dominated by three companies. AWS holds the largest share (roughly 30 per cent). It’s followed by Microsoft Azure (about 20 per cent) and Google Cloud Platform (about 13 per cent).
All three service providers have had recent outages, significantly impacting digital service platforms. For example, in 2024, an issue with third-party software severely impacted Microsoft Azure, causing extensive operational failures for businesses globally.
Google Cloud Platform also experienced a major outage this year due to an internal misconfiguration.
