Measuring cloud services use by businesses
Cloud computing infrastructures underpin an ever-increasing range of business tools,
yet measures of cloud service adoption based on business ICT usage surveys give only
a partial view of their diffusion. They do not reveal the intensity or volume of use
by businesses, or the amount spent on cloud services. This paper assesses the extent
to which insights on the use of commercial cloud services (i.e. services purchased
from external providers) can be gleaned from economic and business statistics – in
particular, from supply-use tables and the underlying business surveys. The paper
examines the defining features of cloud services and their treatment in various statistical
product classifications, before deriving estimates on the use of specific “cloud-containing
product classes” across businesses. A key finding is that efforts are needed to improve
the availability of data that can be used to gain robust insights on business use
of cloud services.
Published on January 27, 2021
In series:OECD Digital Economy Papersview more titles