The cloud computing industry received good news with a new report projecting 20.7% growth in end-user spending, totaling nearly $600 billion, in 2023.

The tech industry has been struggling with economic headwinds that have resulted in mass layoffs and hiring freezes. Despite the challenges, however, the cloud computing industry continues to accelerate its growth.

According to Gartner’s latest research, end-user spending on public cloud services will grow 20.7% in 2023, an increase over the projected 18.8% in 2022. The spending is estimated to reach $591.8 billion.

“Current inflationary pressures and macroeconomic conditions are having a push and pull effect on cloud spending,” said Sid Nag, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. “Cloud computing will continue to be a bastion of safety and innovation, supporting growth during uncertain times due to its agile, elastic and scalable nature.

“Yet, organizations can only spend what they have. Cloud spending could decrease if overall IT budgets shrink, given that cloud continues to be the largest chunk of IT spend and proportionate budget growth.”

Gartner doesn’t see cloud spending slowing down or reversing. In fact, the research indicates that once companies transition to the cloud, very few ever reverse direction, leading to a lasting source of revenue for cloud providers.

“Despite growth, profitability and competition pressures, cloud spending will continue through perpetual cloud usage,” Nag added. “Once applications and workloads move to the cloud they generally stay there, and subscription models ensure that spending will continue through the term of the contract and most likely well beyond. For these vendors, cloud spending is an annuity – the gift that keeps on giving.”