Finding qualified cloud engineers is harder than ever. As demand for cloud solutions grows, hiring managers must fill roles with professionals who understand current technologies and can adapt to rapidly evolving platforms. The talent gap is real—and it’s slowing down digital transformation across industries.
This shortage makes it critical for both businesses and aspiring engineers to understand where cloud computing is headed. From infrastructure demands to emerging technologies like Web3, staying informed is key to making smart cloud choices and building relevant skills.
As you determine the best strategy to implement cloud computing into your skillset, learn more about this technology through the latest cloud computing statistics.
Cloud Industry Growth
The cloud industry is continuing to experience unprecedented growth and expansion, transforming how businesses operate. Recent cloud computing growth statistics highlight a fundamental shift in how organizations approach their digital infrastructure.
As cloud industry growth remains strong across all varieties, companies will increase their migration efforts to cloud-based platforms. These statistics help prove the massive momentum of the cloud industry:
- In 2024, the global cloud infrastructure market reached $330.4 billion—a $60 billion increase from 2023 and a $102 billion increase from 2022.
- Global cloud infrastructure services spending is expected to grow 19% in 2025.
- The cloud computing market is expected to be valued at $947.3 billion in 2026.
- The SaaS segment of cloud computing dominated the market in 2024, with 54% of revenue share.
- Significant growth is expected in both the IaaS and hybrid cloud segments between 2025 and 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% and 20.1%, respectively.
- End-user cloud spending is expected to increase by 21.5% globally and equal $723 billion in 2025.
- By 2032, the global cloud gaming market is forecast to be worth $143.4 billion, with a CAGR of 46.9%.
Cloud Storage and Usage
Many organizations are in the midst of their digital transformation journey, with cloud storage emerging as a critical component of how businesses can manage their assets. From massive enterprises to small startups, cloud-based platforms have proven popular for data management.
These recent cloud computing adoption statistics reveal the true surge in cloud storage and usage among businesses:
- Worldwide, 94% of companies are using cloud computing.
- AWS and Azure are the top public cloud providers that organizations use.
- 74% of all organizations use public cloud services as a data warehouse.
- 60% of organizations use managed service providers (MSPs) to manage the public cloud.
- 2025 is the first year generative AI was included as a public cloud service used by organizations.
- Data is mostly being recovered at least once a month from public cloud storage for backup or recovery purposes.
- Only 44% of traditional small businesses use cloud-based infrastructure or hosting services.
- An average person uses 36 cloud-based services daily.
- The U.S. and Western Europe dominate the top 10 major markets in cloud computing software in 2024.
- In Central and Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, 39% of companies are planning and evaluating the use of cloud-based strategies.
Cloud Computing Cost
With the cloud adoption boom across all industries, CIOs and other decision-makers need to understand the possible financial impact. While there’s potential for great ROI with cloud migration, the upfront costs and fees associated with cloud services can be staggering.
Discover the latest cloud computing cost statistics to set your expectations and help you make informed decisions on your technology stack:
- Cloud services can cost anywhere from $50-$500+ per month, depending on your needs.
- For cloud computing services, including public, private, and hybrid cloud computing, spending is expected to reach $1.3 trillion worldwide in 2025.
- Businesses can triple their ROI on cloud migration. For every $1 spent, $3.86 is returned.
- Most of an organization’s cloud storage cost goes toward storage capacity, but 49% is spent on storage fees.
- Managing cloud spend is the top cloud-related challenge for businesses.
- 62% of public cloud storage spending exceeded the budget for organizations.
- Over the past year, 59% of companies reported an increase in cloud services costs worldwide.
- A majority of organizations aren’t satisfied with the public cloud service they’re currently using because of its price and lack of cost transparency.
- 82% of enterprise teams say cloud automation is crucial for optimizing cost and ROI.
Cloud Computing and Sustainability
As environmental concerns continue to be a priority, the relationship between cloud computing and sustainability has gained significant attention.
While the cloud industry aims to build more energy-efficient data centers, companies are turning to cloud solutions for their lower environmental impact. Learn more from recent cloud computing and sustainability statistics below:
- When applications are specifically optimized for the cloud, carbon emissions can be reduced by 98%.
- Cloud computing data centers require water for cooling. Google’s data centers alone use an average of 4.3 billion gallons of water annually.
- Moving from on-site to the cloud reduces energy consumption by 65%.
- By 2033, the global cloud sustainability market is forecasted to be worth $112.7 billion, with a CAGR of 19.05%.
- Many of the leading cloud providers have pledged to utilize 100% renewable energy by the end of 2025.
Cloud Computing Security
With more corporations migrating their data to the cloud, cloud computing security has become a top priority and concern. As with many technologies, misconfigurations and human error make cloud platforms vulnerable to security breaches and attacks.
Review these statistics to be aware of the current state of cloud computing security:
- Transitioning to the cloud improved security for 94% of businesses in 2024.
- 47% of data stored in the cloud is considered sensitive.
- Soon, global cloud data storage is expected to reach 100 zettabytes.
- Cloud computing’s top threat is misconfiguration and inadequate change control, highlighting the importance of cloud configuration management.
- Businesses are slow to adopt encryption, with less than 10% encrypting 80% or more of their cloud-based data.
- It’s estimated that the average cost of a data breach is $4.88 million.
- Only 2% of businesses have implemented firm-wide cyber resilience, despite high concerns about cybersecurity.
- The time it takes attackers to pull stolen data is getting faster. The time from compromise to data extraction took less than five hours in 25% of cases, and less than an hour in 19% of cases.
Cloud Engineer Statistics
There is a new surge in demand for cloud computing engineers. Because of this, a cloud computing engineer salary is among the highest paying software engineering jobs.
Whether you’re searching for a new career, are already a cloud computing engineer looking to upskill, or seeking to hire cloud engineers based on Lemon.io’s insights, use the following statistics to stay informed on the job market:
- Lemon.io cites a significant increase in demand for cloud computing developers, driven by infrastructure and application migration to cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP.
- The average annual salary of a cloud engineer is $130,815, as of April 21, 2025.
- A cloud engineer’s salary range depends on their experience. The total median pay is $148,000 per year.
- Software developer, including cloud engineer, job opportunities are expected to increase by 17% between 2023 and 2033, which is faster than average.
- There’s a shortage of skilled cloud engineers, which is part of a wider issue: Over 90% of companies are expected to encounter IT skills shortages by 2026.
- Lemon.io cites that only 25.2% of developers mention the cloud in their skills.
- The average hourly rate for a senior cloud engineer in San Jose, CA, ranges from $70 to $86.
Cloud Computing Hiring Data
As cloud computing continues to become an essential part of a company’s technology stack, there is an increased demand for capable and knowledgeable cloud computing developers and engineers.
Hiring these professionals is paramount to ensuring the usability and security of your cloud-based platforms and helps you stay competitive.
With Lemon.io’s insights to help you hire cloud computing developers, explore the statistics below for a clearer understanding of global cloud computing hiring:
- Lemon.io has an average match time of 24 hours, enabling companies to quickly onboard cloud computing developers.
- Lemon.io reports that cloud-related developers earn $30-$70 per hour.
- Lemon.io reports that only 1.62% of developers list cloud as a specialization.
- Lemon.io finds that only 0.4% of developers mention cloud as their primary skill.
- There is a cloud and IT skills gap in 95% of businesses.
- Brazil, China, and India increased cloud computing job postings. Meanwhile, the U.S. is increasing offshore hiring in India, but scaling back in China.
- AWS is investing £8 billion ($10.6 billion). to expand cloud computing infrastructure in the U.K., which is expected to create about 14,000 jobs.
- There was an 8% increase in companies dedicating a FinOps team to cloud cost optimization strategies from 2024 to 2025.
- Finding the perfect cloud job candidate takes an average of six months.
- Lemon.io uses a comprehensive four-step vetting process for all candidates, including cloud engineers, ensuring top-tier talent for clients.
- Lemon.io’s software development statistics predict a fast-paced shift to cloud-based infrastructure as businesses continue to focus on scalability, flexibility, and security.
Challenges With Cloud Computing
While businesses are transitioning to the cloud at record speed, cloud computing exists within a rapidly evolving technological landscape. This presents challenges, especially with the high adoption rates and projected growth shared in the above statistics on cloud computing.
Below are some of the challenges with cloud computing, which must be addressed so businesses can continue successful migration:
- Security: Even though cloud providers have invested in advanced security, misconfigurations, data breaches, and savvy cyber criminals remain threats.
- Compliance: It can be difficult for companies to meet regulatory compliance requirements, especially in highly regulated industries.
- Cost: Some cloud providers charge based on usage, which can cause costs to spike unexpectedly if unmonitored or mismanaged.
- Lock-in: Switching cloud vendors can be complex and expensive. Your cloud platform vendor can also make it difficult to integrate your proprietary tools and applications across multiple platforms.
- Talent: There’s a shortage of skilled cloud professionals, making it difficult to hire and retain these positions in a competitive market.
- Reliability: Like many other technologies, cloud platforms across all providers experience downtime and outages. These unexpected availability disruptions impact your team’s productivity and timelines.
- Governance: Data privacy is a major concern and requires extensive planning to protect all user information. Adding varying laws across the globe complicates matters further.
- Integration: When businesses migrate to the cloud, they need to integrate the platform with on-premise systems, which can be a long and challenging process.
Essentials for Cloud Security
Ensuring security on your business’s cloud platform is essential. To keep your cloud secure and data protected, you should have the following security features built into your platform:
- Encryption: Protect data both in transit and at rest. Look for platforms that offer default encryption and give you control over encryption keys.
- Backup systems: Regular, automated backups are your safety net. Make sure backups are tested and stored in a separate environment from production.
- Authentication: Use strong identity access controls like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) to prevent unauthorized access.
- Firewalls: A basic security layer, firewalls help block malicious traffic. Cloud-native options like AWS Security Groups or Azure NSGs can be customized per workload.
- Security monitoring: Visibility is critical. Your platform should support logging and integrate with security tools to flag suspicious behavior in real time.
- Regulatory compliance: Ensure your platform meets industry requirements like HIPAA, SOC 2, or GDPR. Check for built-in compliance reports and attestations.
- Audit and reporting: You need a record of who did what and when. Centralized logs and alerting help spot issues early and support incident response.
- Application security: Protecting the app layer means running vulnerability scans, applying patches quickly, and using secure development practices.
- Device security: Remote access expands your risk. Control it with device management tools, endpoint protection, and strict access policies.
- Disaster recovery: Outages happen. A tested recovery plan ensures business continuity, especially if your provider experiences downtime.
Expert Insights for Cloud Computing
The future of cloud computing is set on a path of explosive growth driven by massive investments, buy-in across diverse industries, evolving technology trends, and global business transformation. However, the momentum reflected in the above cloud industry growth statistics cannot be realized without more skilled workers.
Companies should consider upskilling engineers to learn more about the cloud and focus on recruiting talent with experience across various cloud platforms.
Cloud is showing up in more and more descriptions, but is rarely the core of the role. Success managing cloud infrastructure depends on finding developers with real, senior-level cloud expertise—not just those who’ve touched AWS once.
Global hiring has also emerged as a key to success in optimizing teams for speed and cost-effectiveness. With worldwide data storage and cloud computing forecasted to soar to new heights, managing the growth requires the best minds from around the globe.
Hire Qualified Cloud Computing Professionals
Cloud computing is set to make massive gains in the coming years, but skilled talent shortages are threatening the actualization of the industry’s growth. Exploring the latest cloud computing statistics is only the beginning of your journey to migrate to the cloud and hire cloud engineers.
Successful cloud migration and usage depends on a multi-faceted plan that prioritizes skilled workers, compliance with best practices, and continual learning. Start your search for cloud computing talent today with Lemon.io’s help.
