European enterprises will spend $8.2bn on cloud professional services in 2015, an increase from only $560m in 2010, as they are starting to migrate existing applications to public or private cloud solutions, according to a new research from IDC.
IDC European services group research director Mette Ahorlu said the early adopters typically started using cloud solutions in parallel with their existing IT, but in 2010 we have seen more companies starting to migrate existing solutions to the cloud and to create roadmap for future migration.
"We don’t expect everything to go to the cloud, but the early adopters are likely to move a majority of their IT to cloud within the next five years, and the vast majority will follow suit within a few years," Ahorlu said.
New outsourcing contracts include cloud services, and as much as 25% of cloud professional services will be delivered as part of outsourcing contracts, according to IDC estimates.
This has a major influence on the choice of provider for professional services as well as for cloud services – the provider needs to be able to manage both the traditional and the new environment under one contract and needs to be able to migrate larger parts to the new environment.
Ahorlu said, "Some believe that cloud is just plug and play, but that is not the case for the more complicated existing or new solutions."
"So professional services will not go away, but they will change and in the longer run beyond 2015 — when migration is complete — account for a much smaller proportion of IT costs.
"Another important point is that service providers need to prepare for the rapidly growing request for cloud professional services and have the resources available."
