The
global public cloud services market will more than triple in size over the next
five years to reach revenue of $66 billion in 2016 and the market will see a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.4 percent from the $18 billion it will
reach at the end of 2011, according to a forecast from independent technology
analyst firm Ovum.
Ovum
reported that North America will continue to dominate the global market with a
50 percent share in 2016, albeit down slightly from the 54.6 percent it holds
in 2011. The market in North America will grow at a CAGR of 27.1 percent
between 2011 and 2016, increasing from $10 billion to hit $33 billion.
In
terms of the cloud computing service lines, software as a service (SaaS) will
shrink from 87 percent of the market in 2011 to 62 percent in 2016 due to the
rise of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS),
which will grow from 9 percent and 5 percent, respectively, to 23 percent and
16 percent by the end of the forecast period, according to the report.
“The
global public cloud services market will explode over the next five years as
uptake soars worldwide,” Ovum cloud computing analyst Laurent Lachal commented.
“However, although the market size will see strong growth, the evolution of
cloud computing within enterprises and the IT trends that follow will happen
more slowly.”
In
the worldwide cloud services market, Asia-Pacific will increase its share from
16 percent in 2011 to 18.8 percent in 2016, and the region will grow at a CAGR
of 33.9 percent from 2011 to 2016, from $2.9 billion to $12.4 billion, the
report projected. Meanwhile, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will remain the
second-largest market over the forecast period. The region’s share will
increase from 27 percent in 2011 to 29 percent in 2016. Western Europe will
grow at a CAGR of 31.2 percent from 2011 to 2016 to reach $17.2 billion, up
from $4.4 billion in 2011.
According
to Lachal, although the market is growing at a fast pace and players such as
Amazon and Google are making much progress, the impact of public clouds will
not be to render IT departments obsolete, but rather to shift their focus.
“Shifts will include taking a more holistic approach to connecting networks,
hardware and software. IT departments will also reduce their emphasis on maintenance
and increase their innovation, while being encouraged to take more risks, by
giving employees the capacity to tackle high-reward ventures,” he said. “But,
as ever, preparation is the key to ensuring that cloud computing delivers a
positive outcome.”
Cloud Computing 
