Cloud computing is a transformational technology that helps companies move their operations online, whether they're analyzing data or building machine learning models. It makes collaboration possible among teams that are working in different locations, connecting organizations across borders like never before.
The industry continues to broaden as companies innovate and find new ways to apply the technology, which is driving growth forward. Estimates suggest the cloud computing market could be worth $483 billion in 2022 and could triple by 2030 to over $1.5 trillion.
That's a significant opportunity for these five companies that offer cloud services to their customers. Here's why their stocks are a buy right now.
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1. Amazon
Cloud services are likely not the first thing most people think of when they hear the name Amazon (AMZN -1.35%). After all, it's best known for being the largest e-commerce company in the world. But its cloud segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS), leads the industry, and it's the profit engine behind the entire company.
Amazon began offering online storage services in 2006, making it one of the oldest players in the cloud business. Since then, AWS has grown to offer hundreds of different services including web hosting, data analytics, and advanced tech like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
AWS generated $62 billion in revenue during 2021, accounting for 13% of Amazon's total revenue of $470 billion. But the profitability picture is reversed, because despite being a minority of Amazon's sales, AWS delivered 74% of the company's overall operating income for the year.
Along with its cloud services, Amazon continues to diversify its business into new areas like advertising and electric vehicles, making it a great diversified long-term bet for investors.
2. DigitalOcean
While Amazon Web Services operates at the rich end of the cloud industry, DigitalOcean Holdings (DOCN -2.79%) has found an edge in the smaller end of the market. It focuses on serving small to mid-sized businesses, and it's beating its competitors on price, service, and ease of use.
DigitalOcean makes deploying virtual machines simple with a suite of one-click features, and its services are up to 41% cheaper than AWS depending on the configuration. And at $0.01 per gigabyte per month for bandwidth, it's 80% cheaper than its nearest competitor. Whether you're building apps, managing databases, or in need of storage, DigitalOcean's monthly plans range between $0 and $15 as a starting point, making them affordable for even the smallest of start-ups.
The company now serves over 609,000 businesses, with its revenue per customer hitting an all-time high of $65.87 in 2021. DigitalOcean estimates that by 2025, its annual market opportunity will be worth $145 billion. Given it generated just $429 million in revenue last year, it has a long runway for growth.
Image source: Getty Images.
3. Splunk
The third cloud computing stock investors should buy right now is Splunk (SPLK). It's a leader in machine learning, with a renewed focus on delivering its suite of advanced technology in the cloud to make it accessible quickly and easily, from anywhere. Splunk currently serves 96 of the Fortune 100 companies, as demand climbs for a technological edge among large organizations.
Splunk's customers use machine learning in different ways. E-commerce companies use it to monitor sales channels, predict technical issues, and reduce downtime. Manufacturers integrate it with critical facility operations and equipment to help it ingest mountains of data, which is used to improve efficiency and monitor for potential costly failures. Overall, machine learning is an incredibly valuable tool that is further enhanced by the cloud.
Splunk's cloud revenue growth is far outpacing its total revenue growth. Cloud sales grew by 70% in the just-ended fiscal year 2022, compared to just 19% for total sales. Cloud revenue also continued to expand to become 35% of Splunk's $2.67 billion total revenue base, compared to 24% last fiscal year.
The company recently appointed a new CEO with extensive experience in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space, who is expected to help to drive growth going forward.
4. Alphabet
Alphabet (GOOG -1.80%) (GOOGL -1.82%) is best known as the parent company of Google. While search remains its flagship service, Google Cloud has become a formidable player in the cloud industry, offering a suite of tools including documents, storage, and even a low-code artificial intelligence platform.
Its cloud-based Vision AI platform can be trained to scan images to identify objects, faces, and even locations, in addition to hosting advanced text and speech recognition tools. But Google Cloud also offers a portfolio of essential services that include virtual machines and data analytics, which places it alongside its larger competitors like Amazon Web Services.
Alphabet is a $1.7 trillion company, yet it's still generating staggering growth. In 2021, it grew revenue by 41% to $257 billion, and although the Cloud segment made up just 7.4% of that number, it delivered 47% growth, which outpaced the company overall.
Clearly, the Alphabet investment story is about more than just cloud services -- you also gain exposure to its burgeoning search business, and even its video platform, YouTube. It's truly a company of the future that has the quality to anchor any portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
5. Microsoft
The final cloud computing stock investors should buy right now is Microsoft (MSFT -1.96%). While Microsoft is best known for its Windows operating system and Office 365 document suite, which are used by billions of people worldwide, its largest segment by revenue is now its Azure segment. Azure has been in a fierce battle with AWS for top spot in the industry in recent years, although Microsoft has often come out second-best.
But owning Microsoft stock gets you even more than the impressive assets named above. Despite being a software specialist, the company has a strong hardware footprint with its Xbox gaming platform and its Surface line of notebooks and tablets. Both of these are billion-dollar brands on their own, and Microsoft's gaming business could get a huge lift if it completes its $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which is currently under government review.
When it comes to the cloud segment, Microsoft's Azure platform is the foundation. It offers over 200 products used by a diverse suite of industries from gaming to financial services to healthcare. In the first half of fiscal 2022, Microsoft's intelligent cloud segment has generated $35 billion in revenue, growing at 28% compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2021, outpacing Microsoft's overall revenue growth of 21%.
Owning Microsoft stock offers diversity in its own right, and it's the perfect long-term opportunity to ride the soaring cloud industry alongside a group of other best-in-class tech businesses.
