Analysts Explore the Latest Cloud Trends During Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Sydney, May 13-14
Gartner analysts are exploring how infrastructure and operations leaders can advance their cloud strategies at the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Sydney this week.
In Gartner’s annual global survey of 3,186 of CIOs and technology executives, including 109 from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), 83% of ANZ CIOs said cloud platforms remain one of the top technology investments in 2025, behind cybersecurity and data analytics.
All Cloud Segments to Experience Double Digit Growth
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) remains the largest end-user spending category in Australia, forecast to reach almost A$13 billion in 2025 (see Table 1). This 15.5% increase from 2024 is due to continued investments in cloud-based application software, driven by functional expansion and generative AI (GenAI) integration capabilities.
Table 1. Australian Public Cloud Services End-User Spending, 2024-2025 (Millions of AUD)
| Segment | 2024 Spending | 2024 Growth (%) |
2025 Spending | 2025 Growth (%) |
| Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS) | 6,577 | 23.5% | 7,967 | 21.1% |
| Cloud Application Services (SaaS) | 11,174 | 17.1% | 12,909 | 15.5% |
| Cloud Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) | 132 | 9.9% | 146 | 11.0% |
| Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS) | 4,488 | 22.5% | 5,576 | 24.2% |
| Total | 22,371 | 19.9% | 26,598 | 18.9% |
Source: Gartner (May 2025)
“Legacy modernization, cost optimization, and the adoption of AI-driven workloads continue to drive strong demand for cloud services,” said Hardeep Singh, Principal Analyst at Gartner. “These factors are expected to sustain cloud growth, particularly as enterprises seek agility and scalability amid uncertainty this year, as trade restrictions and tariffs dampen business confidence and introduce greater unpredictability into short-term planning.
“While the situation continues to change, a lot of cloud spend is tied to multi-year annuity contracts with providers. Tariffs are more likely to affect input costs and disrupt supply chains for new or incremental cloud spending, rather than existing usage. This may lead to cautious spending by providers and delays in data center expansions, prompting marginal adjustments to cloud spending projections. Despite this, the cloud market’s underlying momentum remains intact.”
