The global public cloud services market is expected to grow by 18 percent in 2017 comparted to 2016, totaling $246.8 billion this year, from $209.2 billion last year, according to Gartner.

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is expected to record the fastest growth in 2017, at 36.8 percent, followed by software-as-a-service, at 20.1 percent. The industries are expected to clock in at $34.6 billion and $46.3 billion, respectively. The same research company estimates sustained growth will push the global public cloud service market to an estimated $383.3 billion by 2020.

"The overall global public cloud market is entering a period of stabilization, with its growth rate peaking at 18 percent in 2017 and then tapering off over the next few years," said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner. "While some organizations are still figuring out where cloud actually fits in their overall IT strategy, an effort to cost optimize and bring forth the path to transformation holds strong promise and results for IT outsourcing (ITO) buyers. Gartner predicts that through 2020, cloud adoption strategies will influence more than 50 percent of IT outsourcing deals."

The main driver for IaaS growth and cloud adoption is expected to come from artificial intelligence, analytics platforms and internet-of-things (IoT), as these technologies will require high compute resources that can only be supplied by cloud service providers. Shifting from cloud-first to cloud-only, Gartner predicts 30 of the 100 largest vendors investing in new software will make this transition.

SaaS is expected to reach $75.7 billion, while the IaaS market will total $71.5 billion by 2020. With companies focusing on agility, growth and scalability, moving toward cloud adoption will also bring other significant benefits, such as reduced operational costs and faster implementation.