Financial firms are gearing up for a 2018 cloud shopping spree

Financial service businesses will spend $3.2 billion (2.38 billion) on the cloud in 2017 according to IDC - an increase of 26% year-on-year. The industry is accelerating fast too, with 23.8% growth predicted over the next 12 months.

The company's Worldwide Semiannual Industry Cloud Tracker revealed that although the healthcare and manufacturing sectors still spend the lion's share on cloud services ($8.85 billion (6.59 billion) and $4.22 billion (3.14 billion) respectively), the financial services industry is fast catching up and will see the biggest gains over the next 12 months.

"Healthcare continues to lead the charge from a vertical standpoint, but many industries have picked up momentum, including manufacturing, financial services, and even government," said Eric Newmark, program vice president, Industry Cloud research at IDC.

"Though the market's tipping point is still a few years away, IDC believes the industry cloud market represents one of the largest vertical growth opportunities for technology vendors and professional services firms through 2025."

By 2021, IDC thinks healthcare will still be the biggest cloud spender, topping almost $18 billion (13.41 billion) spent, with manufacturing maintaining its second-place position accounting for $9.2 billion (6.85 billion) in sales, but finance will hit around $7 billion (5.22 billion) in spending by that time.

"The industry cloud market is, without doubt, the most strategic long-term opportunity for the IT industry," Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC added. "It's about companies in every industry using the cloud platform model pioneered by Google, Amazon, and others building big data and digital innovation communities around them to become the digital innovation hubs of their own industry.

"IT suppliers who become strategic suppliers to a successful industry cloud win the business of not just that one organization, but of that customer's entire digital ecosystem."