Worldwide revenue from public IT cloud services has exceeded $16bn in 2009 and is forecast to reach $55.5bn in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4%, according to a report by market research firm IDC.
The firm said that public IT cloud services growth rate is over five times the projected rate of growth for traditional IT products (5%). Spending on public IT cloud offerings in 2014 is expected to reach 12% of the size of traditional IT product spending and will be over 25% of the net-new growth in traditional IT products.
The report ‘Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2010-2014 Forecast’ showed that among the cloud services, cloud applications dominated the year 2009. IDC forecasts that a less skewed distribution of revenue will occur by 2014 , with applications accounting for over one-third of market revenue and increased revenue shares in infrastructure and platform-as-a-service segments.
The research firm said that the revenue from public IT cloud services in 2009 was heavily concentrated in the US (70.2%). It expects the US share to drop to 51.4% by 2014, with Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) regions growing share rapidly.
Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC, said: "The cloud model will propel IT market growth and expansion for the next 20 years and will help the industry to more rapidly develop and distribute a new generation of killer apps, and to more successfully penetrate small and medium-sized businesses.
"Additionally, our research with many CIOs about their plans for adopting cloud computing shows that IT customers are excited about the cost and agility advantages of cloud computing, but they also have serious concerns about the maturity of cloud computing offerings, specifically around security, availability, cost monitoring/management, integration, and standards."
