Collaboration, analytics, enterprise-resource planning and other digital enterprise apps are all growing in popularity among business users — and that’s contributing to the “growing dominance” of cloud services over the internet.

That’s a key finding in Cisco’s annual Global Cloud Index, unveiled Monday. The 7th annual study takes a close look at cloud computing and data virtualization, which are instrumental in the digital transformation.

Each year this report delivers a staggering number, and this time is no exception. Cloud has become so prevalent that, by 2021, cloud traffic will represent 95 percent of total data-center traffic. That’s up from 88 percent in 2016. The reason is simple: the rapid adoption of cloud services by both businesses and consumers.

The Index predicts that cloud data-center traffic worldwide will reach 19.5 zettabytes (ZB) just three years from now, up from 6 ZB in 2016. To put it in more familiar terms, one zettabyte is equal to 1 trillion gigabytes. The number represents a 27 percent annual increase from 2016-2021.

“Data-center application growth is clearly exploding in this new multicloud world. This projected growth will require new innovations especially in the areas of public, private and hybrid clouds,” said Kip Compton, vice president of Cisco’s Cloud Platform and Solutions Group.

Surf through the gallery below for more of Cisco’s findings. All slides come from the Cisco Global Cloud Index.

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