Blog > Percent of Corporate Data Stored in the Cloud (2024)

Percent of Corporate Data Stored in the Cloud (2024)

by Fabio Duarte
Last Updated: November 9, 2023

Contents:

The popularity of cloud computing in business continues to grow.

And each year, more and more corporate data is being stored in the cloud.

We’ll explore the percentage of corporate data stored in the cloud and other related statistics below.

Top Corporate Data Storage Statistics
How Much Corporate Data is Stored in the Cloud?
Cloud Computing Industry Growth
Type of Corporate Data Stored in the Cloud
Cloud Use in Business
Major Players in Cloud Computing
Cost of Cloud Computing

Top 4 Corporate Data Storage Statistics

Around 60% of corporate data is stored in the cloud
The amount of corporate data stored in the cloud has at least doubled since 2015
Over 50% of companies store business records in the public cloud
89% of companies use a multi-cloud approach

How Much Corporate Data is Stored in the Cloud?

According to the latest available data, approximately 60% of corporate data is stored in the cloud.

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This figure has increased 2x from just 30% in 2015.

Here’s how the percentage of corporate data stored in the cloud has changed in recent years:

Year	Proportion of Corporate Data Stored in the Cloud
2015	30%
2016	35%
2017	43%
2019*	48%
2020	50%
2021	50%
2022	60%

Source: Thales Group

Cloud Computing Industry Growth

According to the most recent available data, the global cloud computing market is valued at around $545.8 billion.

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Over the next few years, the industry is expected to more than double, growing at a CAGR of 17.9% between 2022 and 2027.

By 2027, the cloud computing industry is projected to reach a valuation of $1.24 trillion.

Source: MarketsandMarkets

Type of Corporate Data Stored in the Cloud

Employee data (44%) and customer data (44%) are the most common data categories stored by companies in the cloud.

However, each category has seen a drop from 50% in 2019.

Patient or protected health information is increasingly being stored in the cloud by companies. Since 2019, the proportion of companies storing this sort of data in the cloud has grown from 10% to 14%.

Here’s the data in full:

Type of Sensitive Data	2019	2020	2022	Change Since 2019
Employee data	50%	42%	44%	↓ 6%
Customer data	50%	44%	44%	↓ 6%
Corporate financial information	26%	26%	35%	↑ 9%
Intellectual property or trade secrets	16%	14%	23%	↑ 7%
Patient or protected health information	10%	12%	14%	↑ 4%

More specifically, most companies (54.4%) keep business records including finance and accounting stored in the public cloud.

Employee records (48.9%) and business intelligence (45.6%) round off the top three.

Here are the latest figures for sensitive data stored in the public cloud:

Type of Sensitive Data	Proportion of Companies Storing Data in the Cloud
Business records (finance and accounting)	54.4%
Employee records	48.9%
Business intelligence	45.6%
Customer personal information	35.9%
Customer financial information	32.5%
Intellectual property	29.5%
Health records	23.2%
Customer payment card information	22.4%
National security or law enforcement information	9.7%
Student records	8.9%
Other	5.1%

Sources: Netwrix, SANS Institute

Cloud Use in Business

As many as 89% of companies use a multi-cloud approach. While 80% take a hybrid approach, utilizing public and private clouds.

Yet, 97% of IT leaders still intend to expand their cloud systems further.

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As of 2022, the majority (61%) of businesses use either one (34%) or two (27%) clouds in their organization.

These figures have shifted in favor of using one cloud over two. In 2019 62% of businesses used either one (30%) or two (32%).

The number of organizations using three clouds has almost halved from 20% in 2019 to 11% in 2022. While the number of companies using four clouds has dipped from 7% to 3%.

Here’s the data on the number of clouds used by organizations over time:

Year	0 clouds	1 cloud	2 clouds	3 clouds	4 clouds	5+ clouds
2019	9%	30%	32%	20%	7%	2%
2020	7%	33%	30%	20%	6%	3%
2021	4%	35%	30%	22%	6%	2%
2022	6%	34%	27%	11%	3%	2%

Sources: Flexera

Major Players in Cloud Computing

In the previous 12 months leading up to September 2022, cloud infrastructure service revenue totaled $217 billion.

From Q3 2022 to Q2 2023 cloud infrastructure service revenue grew to $247 billion.

In Q2 2023 alone, it generated $65 billion.

Amazon Web Services is the leading cloud infrastructure service provider with a market share of 32%.

Combined, AWS (32%), Microsoft Azure (22%), and Google Cloud (11%) make up around two-thirds (65%) of the cloud market space.

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Here’s a breakdown of the major players in the cloud computing market:

Cloud Infrastructure Service Provider	Market Share	Approximate Revenue
Amazon Web Services	32%	$79.04 billion
Microsoft Azure	22%	$54.34 billion
Google Cloud	11%	$27.17 billion
Alibaba Cloud	4%	$9.88 billion
IBM Cloud	3%	$7.41 billion
Salesforce	3%	$7.41 billion
Tencent Cloud	2%	$4.94 billion
Oracle	2%	$4.94 billion

Source: Statista

Cost of Cloud Computing

Each of the three major cloud providers offers a variety of payment options depending on the service. Long-term, infrequently accessed archive data is considerably cheaper than standard cloud services.