According to the IDC WW Quarterly Cloud Infrastructure Tracker, IT infrastructure spending (server, disk storage, and Ethernet switch) for public and private cloud in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) grew 19.5% year on year to reach $1.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2016.

The cloud-related share of total EMEA infrastructure revenue from servers, disk storage, and Ethernet switches grew by 6 percentage points compared with last year to 24.9% in 3Q16. In terms of storage capacity, cloud represented around 44.8% of total EMEA capacity in 3Q16, with 8.6% growth over the same period a year before. Looking at the market in euros, EMEA in 3Q16 reported strong YoY user value growth (19.1%) in public and private cloud across servers, storage, and switches.

"IDC expects this market to reach a value of $10.9 billion by 2020, from the five-year forecast, or 35.4% of the total market expenditure. Fueled by increasing maturity and adoption rates of many new cloud-dependent technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud continues to represent an area of tremendous growth for the European infrastructure sector," said Kamil Gregor, research analyst, European Infrastructure Group, IDC.

"In Western Europe, we are beginning to see not only specific solutions based on 3rd Platform and Innovation Accelerator technologies, but increasingly often innovative solutions that combine multiple technologies to harness unique value that none of the technologies could unlock alone," said Gregor. "For example, several emerging industry clouds in the region combine data from the Internet of Things edge devices with real-time and Big Data analytics in subverticals such as advanced building automation, manufacturing asset management, and predictive maintenance.

"Regulatory compliance is becoming an increasingly important inhibitor of cloud adoption in the region, mainly due to political volatility in the EU, both in 2016 and potentially continuing throughout 2017, and as we approach the end of a two-year transition period for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. Enterprises at the bleeding edge of innovation are looking into ways of mitigating these issues, for example by taking blockchain technology from the world of financial transactions and applying it to automation of policy compliance in complex cloud environments."

Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) cloud infrastructure revenue grew by 17.8% year over year to $214.14 million in 3Q16, driven by investment in networking functionalities as Ethernet switch recorded the fastest growth. The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region saw the strongest growth in EMEA, with many organizations investing in private cloud to consolidate and optimize their resources as IT budgets come under pressure.

"Private cloud deployments have been driving growth in the CEMA region as organizations that are consolidating their IT infrastructure seek greater flexibility, lower capex, and faster implementation over traditional IT infrastructure," said Jiri Helebrand, research manager, Systems and Infrastructure Solutions, IDC CEMA. Cloud infrastructure spending in the CEMA region is estimated to be 19% of the total addressable server, storage, and networking hardware market, with public cloud accounting for about 47% of this share.