Samsung SDS beat Microsoft (MS) and seized the No. 2 spot in Korea's public (open) cloud market.
According to market research firm IDC's report "Korea public cloud market after 2025" on the 12th, in 2024 Samsung SDS posted an 11.3% share of the domestic public cloud market, placing second behind the dominant leader Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The report shows that as of 2024, the domestic public cloud market was 6.237 trillion won, up 23.4% from a year earlier. Of that, AWS recorded 1.372 trillion won in revenue for a 22% share. Samsung SDS posted 703 billion won in revenue, up 29.4% from the previous year.
MS's revenue and share were 601 billion won and 9.6%, respectively, slipping to third place. Next, Naver ranked fourth with 311 billion won in revenue and a 5% share, and KT ranked fifth with 126 billion won in revenue and a 2% share.
All providers increased revenue from a year earlier. IDC said, "As corporations move in earnest to adopt and use Generative AI, cases of using the cloud as core infrastructure are increasing," adding, "In particular, cloud use for operating large language models (LLMs) and complex artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms is accelerating."
In particular, the report explained that as use of graphics processing units (GPUs) for AI model training and large-scale data processing rapidly spread among research institutions and large corporations, demand for high-performance computing rose sharply, and, accordingly, a preference for cloud environments became pronounced.
For Samsung SDS, IDC analyzed that it sustained strong growth based on continued demand for public cloud adoption among its affiliates. Centered on its Generative AI platform Fabrics and its enterprise collaboration solution Brity Works, it appears to have expanded its market influence in platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).
IDC projected, "Although references are currently centered on affiliates, based on this, it is expected to target the external market focusing on finance and the public sector going forward."