Personal cloud market size is forecast to surpass $177 billion by 2025, growing at CAGR 17.8% during 2020-2025 owing to the increasing number of smartphone users globally with growing penetration of 4G subscribers. Apart from this, the significant rise in enterprises opting for indirect personal cloud services due to its less go-to-market time, higher profit margins and so on. This is set to assist the market growth especially in the small and medium business end users during the forecast period 2020-2025.
Key Takeaways- Personal Cloud Industry Outlook
- Small and medium business market vertical for personal cloud to witness prominent growth rate during 2020-2025, owing to the low cost, ease of scalability and elimination of the need for big IT team
- Increase penetration of mobile workers in SME along with adoption of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) scheme to reduce the IT infrastructure cost also set to drive the personal cloud market
- Explosive growth of smartphones and connected devices to create a significant surge for personal cloud services for OTG data storage featuring anytime and anywhere access to the data across multiple platforms
User Type - Segment Analysis
The individual user segment is estimated to acquire the major market share in 2018 owing to the explosive growth in the number of smartphone users. The surge the demand for cloud storage of mobile data incorporating contacts, pictures, videos, messages and other files for access at any point of time and place; this is analyzed to be the major driver driving the individual personal cloud market. Small and medium business users for personal cloud segment, particularly for NAS Device cloud and service device cloud is set to witness significant growth of CAGR 19% during the forecast period 2020-2025 owing to shift to personal cloud for file storage due to its cost effectiveness as compared to onsite storage servers, thereby eliminating the need for IT staff. The
Geography - Segment Analysis
North America dominated the personal cloud market acquiring a share of around 35% in 2018 owing to the large base for customers with on-the-go storage needs coupled by the higher purchasing power towards new technology based products. Additionally, the penetration of connected technologies such as smart home, smart devices and so on is also significant driving the demand for personal cloud as a one stop solution for dumping the backup data generated from multiple connected devices for ease of access from any mobile devices. APAC personal cloud market is estimated to witness the highest growth rate during 2020-2025 owing to the growing tech savvy customer base in this region. Apart from this adoption of 5G in this region from 2020 is set to open up new opportunities for personal cloud market as high speed data transmission and on-the-go data access is set to lower the data loading time thereby attracting more customer attention
Drivers – Personal Cloud Industry
· Broad 4G customer base
As per GSMA, the global 4G connections surpassed 3.4 billion subscribers which stood as 43% penetration in the total subscribers by the end of 2018. This is set to reach 59% by 2025 with smartphone adoption surging to 79% by 2025 from 60% in 2018. The significant increase in number of smartphone users with 4G connections is set to propel the personal cloud market growth during 2020-2025. This combined with the advent of cloud computing will drive the personal cloud market.
· Shifting focus to mobile workforce
The evolving small and medium enterprises are blooming at a rapid pace with shift in focus towards mobile workforce to extend its reach and support services. The adoption of mobile workforce creates the demand for personal cloud for setting up a centralized data storage architecture which can be access as per requirement and convenience. As per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, the share of millennial in the mobile workforce is set to surge to 75% by 2030. And as per IndustryARC estimated the total number of mobile workers in the U.S. is set to surpass 100 million by 2020 which represent over 70% of the total U.S. workforce. The growing number of mobile workers is set to drive the personal cloud market during 2020-2025
Challenges – Personal Cloud Industry
· Concern on Data Security and Privacy
Data security and privacy on the cloud is one of the major challenges hindering the personal cloud market growth. The growing number of cyber attacks in the past couple of years targeting small and medium business is also one of the major factors impeding the adoption. As per Identity Theft Resource Center, hackers stole around 447 million consumer records in 2018 as compares to 198 million in 2017 which is nearly 126% increase during 2017-2018.
Market Landscape
Personal cloud top 10 companies includes Apple, Inc., Amazon Web Services, Google, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Dropbox, Inc., IDrive Inc., Box, Inc., Egnyte, Inc., Sugarsync, Inc., SpiderOAK Inc. and so on. The market is estimated to be moderately fragmented with the top 10 players acquiring around 40% of the global personal cloud market share in 2018. These players are opting for various strategies such as acquisition, product launch and collaboration and so on to maintain their market position
Acquisitions & Product Launches
- In July 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Elastifile, a cloud storage vendor to strengthen its offering portfolio with added functionalities
- In October 2019, Microsoft Corp, acquired Mover, a Canada based cloud storage migration startup for strengthening its Microsoft 365 file migration capabilities
- In November 2019, Rackspace, the managed cloud service and security solution provider announced the acquisition of Onica, an Amazon Web Service managed service provider, to enhance its managed cloud portfolio
