Cloud computing predicted to outpace IT growth

Cloud computing predicted to outpace IT growth

Cloud computing as a sector has been predicted to grow at a pace that far exceeds the IT industry as a whole.

A recent report from Gartner suggested that the public cloud will grow five times faster than overall IT enterprise spending at a rate of 19 per cent annually through to 2015. This is a rise on top of an already substantial expenditure recorded last year when $74 billion was spent on public cloud services, representing just three per cent of total enterprise spending.

Peter Sondergaard, senior vice-president at Gartner and global head of research, looked at the reasons for the rise in cloud adoption: “What supply chain models did to manufacturing is what cloud computing is doing to in-house data centres. It is allowing people to optimise around where they have differentiated capabilities.”

He added that cloud computing is one of several innovative areas of IT that are helping to “revolutionise business and society”. “This nexus defines the next age of computing,” he remarked.

Alongside cloud computing, social computer involvement, improved mobility and a new level of mass-information are contributing to the upheaval in the sector.

However, IT expenditure as a whole is predicted to increase at a reduced pace. This year was set to see a 5.9 per cent increase in worldwide enterprise spending, but this target looks unlikely with an expected total of $2.6 trillion in line.

But the sector is by no means stagnant and the Gartner figures suggested that worldwide enterprise spending will total $2.7 trillion in 2012, which represents a 3.9 per cent increase on this year's expenditure.

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.