Cloud Database Market

The cloud database market represents a significant shift in the way organizations around the world conduct business. Enterprise-scale companies, in particular, are turning away from legacy on-premise database solutions in favor of accessible, flexible cloud solutions. 

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 75% of all databases will be deployed or migrated to cloud platforms, primarily for analytics and as part of popular SaaS offerings. Organizations are realizing the benefits of their cloud database investments in the form of cost and productivity savings — it’s unlikely the market will see a downshift any time soon. 

This article provides an overview of the state of the cloud database market, predicted future growth, key market drivers, benefits of this technology, and use cases.  

Cloud database market

There’s a reason the cloud database market has become popular among investors — there’s no question this market will continue evolving at a steady pace for the foreseeable future. The global business community is rapidly adopting cloud database solutions. 

By 2018, Gartner reported that the worldwide database management system revenue grew 18.4% to $46 billion, with cloud database management systems making up 68% of that growth. Looking ahead, the worldwide global cloud database market is projected to reach $68.5 billion by 2026, according to research conducted by Valuates Reports. This figure represents an annual growth rate of 38.2% from 2021 through 2026.

Key growth drivers

Valuates Reports identifies three dominant factors driving the growth of the global cloud database market: 

• The expense of sprawling, constantly growing database infrastructure is significantly reduced by moving to the cloud. Physical infrastructure costs become obsolete and can be seamlessly, affordably, scaled down during non-peak usage times. 
• Application integration is easier and much quicker than on-premise databases. Developers can configure a database ready to integrate with applications in minutes. 
• Built-in security features commonly offered by cloud database providers elevate enterprise network security, an area of great concern in the era of remote work and increasingly intelligent threat actors lurking in the shadows. Default encryption of data, integrated identity and access management controls and regulatory compliance tools are all available as options or standard features of solutions found in the marketplace. 

Primary industries

Research firm IndustryARC reports that the cloud database market in 2020 was dominated by large enterprises, a segment the company projects will grow at an annual growth rate of 33.1% through 2026. The banking and financial services industry represented the primary adopter of cloud database services in 2020. Other primary industries include:

• IT
• Telecom
• Insurance
• Manufacturing
• Health care
• Life Sciences

Cloud database adoption by region

North America dominated the cloud database market in 2020 with a market share of 41.5%, followed by the Asia-Pacific and Europe.

According to IndustryARC, a major factor contributing to the North American dominance is the presence of large cloud database vendors like Amazon, Google, and Oracle. 

See more: Database Trends 2021

Benefits of cloud databases

For many organizations, the primary benefit of shifting to a cloud-based database model from a primarily on-premises database solution is accessibility. This is especially true as the global business world emerges from the 2020 pandemic with a new emphasis on remote work arrangements. Other notable benefits of cloud databases include:

• Cloud database clusters can be scaled up or down based on actual usage versus pre-purchasing physical database space in anticipation of future needs that may or may not arise.
• Backup solutions can be set up quicker and more affordably, allowing businesses to establish continuity plans that can be activated automatically should a network failure occur. 
• Cloud infrastructures are inherently well-suited for disaster recovery. Saved data is replicated across servers, allowing organizations to retrieve data almost immediately, ultimately reducing downtime and productivity losses. 
• Encrypted cloud databases are extremely valuable for distributed workforces, including remote workers and global organizations with multiple sites.

Leading cloud database providers

While the cloud database market is dominated by some of the biggest brands in the tech space, a few niche providers in this space hold their own. These ten companies represent the majority of the cloud database market share. 

• IBM
• Microsoft
• Amazon 
• Google
• Oracle 
• Rackspace
• SAP
• Salesforce
• CenturyLink
• Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)

Cloud database use cases

According to Donald Feinberg, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, organizations are increasingly developing and deploying new applications in the cloud and moving existing assets, a trend Feinberg expects to increase. 

“We also believe this begins with systems for data management solutions for analytics use cases — such as data warehousing, data lakes and other use cases where data is used for analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML),” Feinberg says.

“Increasingly, operational systems are also moving to the cloud, especially with conversion to the SaaS application model.” 

Conclusions

The cloud database market trajectory is reflective of an overall trend toward cloud adoption for wide-ranging applications. For example, organizations rely on cloud-based resources to centralize and share communication and proprietary resources to employees and clients wherever they may be physically. Database management in the cloud is an extension of this evolution of the way global businesses operate. 

With major tech players leading the pack, organizations considering investments in cloud database management have many reliable options from which to choose. Given the size of the cloud database market, there is likely an attractive solution to be found for virtually every organization.

See more: Public Cloud Computing Providers