Revenue from sales of cloud computing products and services are poised to surge from their current base of approximately $20bn to nearly $150bn by 2020, according to a new study by business consulting firm Bain & Company.
The study, "The Five Faces of the Cloud", also found, to date, only 10% of companies have driven nearly 50% of the market for cloud offerings.
Over the next three years, nearly 65% of the approximately $20bn in growth in this market will come from companies that make little or no use of cloud today.
According to the survey which surveyed 494 North American CIOs and IT decision-makers, faster growing companies growing at a rate of more than 10% per year use 144% more cloud services than slower-growing companies.
CIOs with diverse business experience use 82% more cloud services than those who have spent their professional careers predominantly in IT, the study said.
In the next three-to-five years, for certain workloads, Bain estimates that cloud pricing will be 30 to 40% lower than legacy technology.
Bain has identified five distinct cloud user profiles – transformational, heterogeneous, safety-conscious, price-conscious, slow and steady – enabling providers to better tailor their offerings while addressing a broader spectrum of companies.
Bain partner and lead author of the study Michael Heric said cloud providers have thus far been largely focused on developing solutions for the earliest adopters.
"There is no guarantee that today’s cloud leaders will remain on top. If they cannot broaden the appeal of their solutions to meet the needs of new cloud adopters, other providers will step in to fill the void," Heric said.
