Cloud spending hits $95.3B in Q2, AI drives growth

Fascinating to see how AI is supercharging cloud spend! Global spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $95.3 billion in Q2 2025, with a 22% jump year over year. Due to the incredible advantages of cloud and AI technology, businesses can win big in this space by adopting a flexible, multi-model approach.

AWS: Leading the World in Server Infrastructure Amazon Web Services (AWS) has long been recognized as a pioneer in cloud computing, providing scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solutions for businesses of all sizes. One of the key factors that set AWS apart from its competitors is the sheer scale of its server infrastructure. Unlike traditional data centers or regional cloud providers, AWS operates a global network of data centers, known as Availability Zones, across multiple geographic regions. This expansive network enables AWS to deploy hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of servers worldwide, far surpassing most other cloud providers or private data centers in server count. Why Server Count Matters Having a larger number of servers translates directly into increased computing power, redundancy, and flexibility for customers. It allows AWS to support a massive volume of simultaneous workloads, handle spikes in demand effortlessly, and maintain high levels of availability and fault tolerance. For enterprises running mission-critical applications, this means minimal downtime and consistent performance, regardless of location or workload size. Global Reach and Capacity AWS’s strategy emphasizes both breadth and depth. With dozens of regions and hundreds of availability zones spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond, AWS ensures that its infrastructure is closer to end-users, reducing latency and improving user experience. Moreover, by continuously investing in new data centers and expanding existing ones, AWS keeps scaling its server fleet to meet ever-growing customer demand. Innovation and Efficiency AWS’s dominance is not just about quantity. The company invests heavily in optimizing server efficiency, energy usage, and cooling systems. Advanced automation and monitoring allow AWS to maximize server utilization, meaning more computing power is delivered per server compared to many traditional data centers. The Competitive Edge While other cloud providers and on-premises data centers continue to grow, few can match AWS’s scale. The combination of a massive global server footprint, continuous expansion, and operational efficiency gives AWS a unique advantage in the cloud market. For businesses seeking a reliable and scalable cloud platform, this infrastructure superiority translates directly into faster deployments, better performance, and the ability to innovate without limits. In short, AWS’s unmatched server capacity is not just a number—it’s the foundation of a cloud ecosystem that powers millions of applications, businesses, and services worldwide.

Polaris: A Beginner’s Guide to Cloud, Cluster, and Smart Compute We live in a digital age powered by an invisible infrastructure. Every time we stream a movie, run an application, or interact with AI, vast networks of machines are working behind the scenes to make it possible. Most infrastructures are controlled by centralized cloud providers. While effective, these systems come with a trade-off: high costs, limited transparency, and little opportunity for users to be active participants beyond being paying customers. • What is Polaris? Polaris is a smart infrastructure platform that combines the scalability of cloud computing with the intelligence of decentralized clusters. With Polaris, users can: →Run and deploy AI models. →Contribute spare compute power and earn rewards. →Validate network activity for greater security. →Tap into a global ecosystem of distributed intelligence. In summary, Polaris transforms infrastructure from a service you rent into a network you use, contribute to, and benefit from. • Cloud vs Cluster: The Evolution Cloud (Today’s Standard): Renting space on another company’s servers, fast and convenient, but costly, opaque, and fully controlled by the provider. Cluster (Tomorrow’s Standard): A decentralized pool of resources where contributors share computing power, security, and intelligence. Polaris unites these two models into something stronger: a cloud-cluster hybrid, where users are both participants and beneficiaries. You can think of it as your personal bridge to faster, more flexible, and more intelligent infrastructure. • What is Smart Compute →Traditional computing is transactional machines execute commands without context. Polaris introduces Smart Compute: →Built on Bittensor, a decentralized machine learning network. →Nodes learn from each other, adapt to user demand, and improve over time. →The system rewards useful contributions, creating a self-optimizing infrastructure. →This turns raw compute into an intelligent, value-generating network. • Why Polaris? Polaris is not just a platform. It’s a shift in how we build, access, and benefit from compute. Decentralized ownership – Users control resources, not corporations. Cost-efficient scaling – Pay less, contribute more, and earn in return. Adaptive intelligence – Infrastructure that learns and improves with use. Global participation – Anyone, anywhere, can join and grow with the network. Computing With Purpose Polaris is more than faster servers or cheaper computes, it’s an infrastructure designed with intelligence, ownership, and opportunity at its core. Unlike traditional systems that centralize power and extract value, Polaris distributes it, giving control and rewards to the community, empowers users, combines speed, intelligence, and flexibility in a way traditional systems simply cannot. "We're not building the biggest cluster, we're building a cluster everyone can build on"

The Cloud Bill Shock A lot of companies race to the cloud expecting agility, efficiency, and cost savings. Yet, months later, the finance team is in shock: 👉 Cloud bills are higher than the old on-premise datacenter. 👉 The CFO starts questioning whether the move was worth it at all. Why does this happen? The problem isn't the cloud; it's the assumption that it's a direct replacement for your data center. It's not. It's a different economic and operational model entirely. A lift-and-shift migration without optimization is not transformation, it’s relocation. Here are the three most common culprits bleeding your budget dry: 1️⃣ Overprovisioning or Unoptimized VMs: On-prem, you bought for peak capacity "just in case." In the cloud, that "insurance" has a direct, hourly price tag. That 32-core, 128GB RAM VM running at 5% utilization? You're now paying for its potential, not its actual work. This is the single largest source of waste I uncover. 2️⃣ Data Transfer Surprises: In your own data center, moving terabytes between servers was "free." In the cloud, every cross-AZ, cross-region, or egress transfer carries a fee. A poorly architected data pipeline or a misconfigured storage tier can generate a six-figure bill from what seems like thin air. 3️⃣ Zombie Resources: These are the ghost resources haunting your account. Unattached Elastic IPs, idle load balancers, old snapshots, and forgotten storage volumes. They might only cost pennies per hour, but they accumulate silently, creating a persistent drain on your finances. So, how do we fix this? The answer isn't just "using the cost management tool." It's a shift in mindset: From Monoliths to Microservices: Right-sizing becomes possible when your application is decomposed. A small, focused service doesn't need a monster VM. From Fixed Capacity to Elasticity: Embrace auto-scaling. Your infrastructure should breathe with your traffic, not sit idle 18 hours a day. From CapEx Mindset to FinOps Culture: Cloud cost optimization isn't a one-time event. It's an ongoing discipline that requires collaboration between finance, DevOps, and engineering. A true cloud transformation isn't about moving servers. It's about re-architecting for the cloud's fundamental value propositions: elasticity, managed services, and pay-as-you-go. The goal is to ensure your cloud migration delivers on its promise of innovation and efficiency, not just a more expensive change of venue. If you're looking at your cloud bill with concern, let's talk. My DMs are open. #CloudComputing #FinOps #CloudMigration #DevOps #CostOptimization #AWS #Azure #GoogleCloud #TechLeadership #ITInfrastructure

Cloud Migration Isn’t Just a Move—It’s a Mindset Most leaders view cloud migration as a purely technical project. In reality, it’s a strategic choice that can define your organization’s agility, scalability, and resilience for the next decade. From Lift & Shift to Reimagine, there are six proven strategies—each with its own trade-offs in cost, risk, and speed. The real secret? Most successful organizations don’t pick just one. They blend approaches to balance quick wins with long-term transformation. The question isn’t if you’ll move to the cloud—it’s how strategically you’ll do it. Read the full breakdown of the 6 strategies here: https://lnkd.in/gizPCvWm #MSPartner #CloudMigration #DigitalTransformation #Azure #AWS #GoogleCloud #CloudStrategy #BusinessContinuity #TechLeadership #FutureOfWork

ORACLE Cloud Infra business to exceed half a trillion dollars! (Reuters) - Oracle said on Tuesday it expects booked revenue at its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business to exceed half a trillion dollars, boosted by growing demand for its relatively low-cost cloud infrastructure services and sending its shares up 27% after the bell. The company's remaining performance obligations, or RPO, the most popular measure of booked revenue, jumped 359% to $455 billion in the first quarter, ended August 31.    "Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars," said CEO Safra Catz. Oracle, whose shares have risen over 107% so far this year, forecast OCI revenue growth of 77% to $18 billion this fiscal year, and on to $144 billion over the subsequent four years. "Enterprises are clearly eager for cost-effective AI cloud tools, and Oracle is positioning itself to capture that demand," said eMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne. Oracle offers integrated cloud technologies along with flexible deployment models, enabling it to meet a range of customer demands. "We made it very easy for our customers to directly connect all their databases ... to the world's most advanced AI reasoning models — ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, all of which are uniquely available in the Oracle Cloud," Catz said on a post-earnings call. Even though it is a smaller player, "both current and forecast numbers show that Oracle's investment in infrastructure is continuing to pay off as large organizations look to Oracle Cloud to support their AI initiatives," said Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of industry analyst firm Valorie. It has struck deals with Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft for OCI to run inside their respective cloud infrastructure. Revenue from these clients grew 1,529% in the first quarter. "We expect MultiCloud revenue to grow substantially every quarter for several years as we deliver another 37 datacenters to our three hyperscaler partners, for a total of 71," Chairman Larry Ellison said. "By offering integrated solutions across various environments, Oracle is not just keeping up but actually leading the way in the cloud space. This could attract even more businesses looking for versatile cloud options," according to Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global's Visible Alpha. Oracle also said it had signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in the first quarter, helping a 12% increase in revenue to $14.93 billion. For the second quarter, Oracle expects total revenue to grow 12% to 14%, while it sees cloud revenue growth between 32% to 36%.

#### CLOUD COMPUTING #### Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics—over the internet instead of relying on local hardware or personal data centers. ### Key concept is to provide rental based resources on demand to businesses and individuals Instead of owning IT infrastructure. ### Necessity of Cloud Computing Traditional on-premises systems are costly, hard to scale, and require maintenance. Cloud computing solves these issues by providing: On-demand resources (pay as you go). Flexibility & Scalability to meet dynamic business needs. Remote accessibility, enabling global workforce collaboration. Disaster recovery & backups without expensive infrastructure. ### Advantages of Cloud Computing Cost Efficiency – Reduces capital expenditure (no need for buying physical servers). Scalability – Resources can be scaled up/down based on demand. Accessibility – Access from anywhere with internet. Performance – Cloud providers use high-performance infrastructure. Security – Advanced security features, compliance standards. Disaster Recovery – Data backup & recovery systems built-in. ### Types of Cloud Computing ## A. Based on Deployment Models Public Cloud – Services offered over the public internet (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP). Private Cloud – Dedicated cloud infrastructure for a single organization. Hybrid Cloud – Combination of public and private clouds for flexibility. Community Cloud – Shared infrastructure for a specific community/industry. ## B. Based on Service Models IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) – Provides virtualized computing resources (e.g., AWS EC2, Azure VMs). PaaS (Platform as a Service) – Provides platform & tools for developers (e.g., Google App Engine, AWS Elastic Beanstalk). SaaS (Software as a Service) – Ready-to-use applications delivered via internet. FaaS (Function as a Service/Serverless) – Runs code in response to events without managing servers (e.g., AWS Lambda). ### Amazon AWS Cloud Features Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) – Scalable virtual servers. Simple Storage Service (S3) – Scalable object storage. Relational Database Service (RDS) – Managed databases AWS Lambda – Serverless computing. Elastic Beanstalk – PaaS for deploying and scaling applications. VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) – Secure networking environment. CloudFront – Content delivery network (CDN). IAM (Identity & Access Management) – Secure access control. Auto Scaling & Load Balancing – Ensures availability and performance. CloudWatch – Monitoring and logging services. Dedicated to #softwarearchitects, #projectmanagers #softwaredevelopers -- By Abhijit Parab #softwareprojectmanager #SDLC #AWS #cloudserver #digitaltransformation

A recent ESG economic validation report validates what many companies already know: migrating from on-premises to the cloud can dramatically reduce costs and improve agility. Here are some of the most compelling numbers from companies that moved their on-premises capabilities to AWS: • Compute costs down by ~63%, thanks to services like EC2 (especially Graviton-based), Auto-Scaling, and Savings Plans • Networking costs reduced by ~66%, by streamlining connectivity, reducing legacy hardware, and taking advantage of pay-as-you-go networking tools  • Storage costs slashed by ~69% via better tiering (e.g. S3 Intelligent-Tiering), Glacier classes, managed file systems and lifecycle policies Beyond the dollars, the cloud delivers fault-tolerant, highly-available systems. When workloads scale up or down dynamically, teams don’t need to overprovision or waste resources. Ask yourselves: • “How can my organization benefit from cost-optimization in storage, compute, or networking in our current setups?” • “Which workloads should we migrate now to get early results?” • “Do we have tools & processes in place to monitor and measure our application after it has been deployed?” Cloud migration isn’t just a tech evolution, it’s a financial lever. When done smartly, it redefines what “value” means in your infrastructure decisions. At P6K Solutions, we are dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes reduce and optimize their existing applications. If you're considering migrating to cloud from on-premises, what has been your experience? What is holding you back? https://lnkd.in/gSAE3KHu #CloudMigration #CostSavings #AWS #Optimization #DevOps #ITLeadership #Agility #FinOps #MLOps #GCP

Cloud Costs Are Out of Control—And Most Enterprises Don’t Even Know It The latest research shows 94% of IT leaders are struggling to optimize cloud spending—and frankly, it’s turning into a crisis for enterprises. Far too many organizations have no real idea what they’re actually spending on cloud resources. Cloud costs are coming in at 3 to 4 times more than what enterprises originally estimated. Even worse, many teams have no idea how costs are adding up by the end of each month. If you don’t know how your costs are being allocated, you have zero ability to optimize—or even control—what you spend. Cloud complexity is draining budgets and slowing down innovation. This is something that needs to be fixed, and fast. Enterprises need visibility, accountability, and a strategy to finally rein in these runaway cloud expenses. If we don’t act now, the problem will just keep getting bigger. #CloudComputing #CloudCostOptimization #EnterpriseIT #FinOps #CloudStrategy 94% of IT leaders struggle to optimize cloud costs

A new ControlMonkey report highlights deep cracks in cloud infrastructure readiness as generative AI workloads surge. Surveying 300 leaders in DevOps, cloud, and infrastructure roles, the report found: 98% of organizations face blockers to scale and resilience. Security/governance (37%), visibility (36%), and resource allocation (32%) top the list. Nearly half of DevOps teams lack bandwidth for innovation. Only 46% of organizations are fully prepared to scale automation for AI workloads. Average infrastructure-as-code coverage is 51%, with just 1% of teams fully automated. With AI workload demand expected to rise 50% in the next two years, the study frames this as a "turning point" for enterprise cloud infrastructure.