End-user spending on cloud computing is continuing to see healthy, double-digit growth rates, and it’s an opportune time for innovative cloud startups to help organizations moving beyond coronavirus pandemic-accelerated migrations to more fully mine the technology industry’s hottest sector.

Gartner expects global public cloud end-user spending to increase 23.1 percent this year to $332.3 billion. The growth will be driven in part by emerging technologies — including containerization, virtualization and edge computing — becoming more mainstream, according to the research and advisory firm. The pandemic has been a “multiplier” for chief information officers’ interest in the cloud, says Gartner research vice president Sid Nag, who views cloud as the ”glue” between other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) that CIOs want to use.

Established cloud providers and their investment arms are stepping up their games to support startups with new programs to help the early-stage companies and expose them to their own enterprise customers. Amazon Web Services launched the AWS Partner Network Global Startup Program in 2019 to help startups with compelling enterprise products better-leverage its benefits, including its go-to-market efforts. And Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of customer relationship management leader Salesforce, last October announced a new $100 million fund to accelerate the growth of cloud companies.

Here’s CRN’s list of 10 cloud computing startups to watch so far in 2021. They range from an MLOps company that emerged from stealth mode in April to an IoT cloud platform provider for hardware developers to a cloud cost management software company. All of them were boosted by recent venture capital funding rounds.

See the latest entry: The 10 Coolest Cloud Computing Startup Companies of 2022

For more of the biggest startups, products and news stories of 2021 so far, click here  .