The new hot topic in the tech industry has been around since – and this is a conservative estimate – the early 2000s.

It’s taken us a while to get where we are today, but these days the cloud permeates all facets of an IT environment – from applications to platforms to infrastructure. A quick look at the leading public cloud service providers – AWS, Microsoft, Google and IBM —  shows the competition is fierce among vendors and the decision-making process for technology buyers isn’t for the faint of heart.

With the roster of vendor-behemoths chasing your cloud dollars, it comes as no surprise that the stakes are high. In its Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, IDC predicts that spending on public cloud services and infrastructure will more than double between now and 2023 with public cloud spending, growing from $229 billion in 2019 to nearly $500 billion in 2023.

IDC reports that software as a service will be the largest category of cloud computing, capturing more than half of all public cloud spending. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) will be the second largest category of public cloud spending, followed by platform as a service (PaaS). IaaS spending, comprised of servers and storage devices, will also be the fastest growing category of cloud spending,

What IT leaders think, we asked

But which cloud providers are enterprise IT decision-makers most likely to choose and why? To find out,  IDG, in a series a phone interviews, asked tech pros their thoughts on these question:

• Are you currently using a cloud service provider?
  • If so, which one?
• What are your priorities when it comes to public and private cloud?
• What is your primary priority for your cloud strategy?

Not surprisingly, the majority of those responding in our polls of IT leaders are using a cloud service. Somewhat surprising perhaps is that Microsoft Azure topped AWS as the cloud service of choice among the 400 tech pros we called.  (For more on how Microsoft Azure and AWS compare check out this head-to-head comparison.)

 IDG

Asked to think about their priorities involving public vs. private cloud, enterprise users ranked private and a combined hybrid approach ahead of a public-only strategy.

 IDG

No one said cloud deployments are easy. The responses to our question about what IT leaders are spending their time focusing on highlight both the promise and intricacies of moving to the cloud — cost savings (i.e., the promise) and managing a multicloud environment (i.e., the complexity) tied as the biggest priority.

 IDG

For a deeper dive into the current state of cloud computing, don’t miss Eric Knorr’s in-depth analysis of the state of the cloud   in an Insider Pro exclusive report.