Jefferies analysts have found in their survey of 40 US CIOs that Microsoft Azure is gaining ground against Amazon Web Services in the cloud computing battle. The survey revealed a growing focus on cloud adoption and a slight preference for Azure, with more CIOs expecting cloud spending to increase by more than 10% in 2024 compared to 2023. This aligns with a shift toward cloud workloads, as 58% of CIOs expect to have over half of their workloads in the cloud by the end of 2025.
One key driver for this growth is artificial intelligence, with 54% of respondents citing AI initiatives as a top reason for increased cloud spending. The survey also indicates a shift in cloud service provider preferences, with Microsoft Azure outperforming Amazon AWS in the sample. Currently, 45% of respondents identify Azure as their primary cloud provider, compared to 43% for AWS, marking a change from previous survey results where AWS was the leader.
Looking ahead, spending intentions slightly favor Azure, with cloud spending intentions higher for Azure than AWS. Jefferies sees this as positive for cloud providers, indicating that the revenue hurdles for cloud providers may be behind them.
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https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/cloud-war-azure-has-slight-edge-over-aws-says-jefferies-432SI-3511481