Channel drives global cloud growth as total spend surges Channel drives global cloud growth as total spend surges Total cloud services market expenditure in the three months ending 31 December 2020 was over US$3 billion higher than the prior quarter, and nearly US$10 billion more than Q4 2019. Credit: Dreamstime The IT channel, including global systems integrators, managed service providers (MSPs), resellers and distributors, is playing an increasingly important role in driving the growth of the cloud industry around the world, as the market hits new heights. This is according to industry analyst firm Canalys, which claims that total cloud services market expenditure in the three months ending 31 December 2020 was over US$3 billion higher than the prior quarter, and nearly US$10 billion more than Q4 2019.