30 Sep 2011
The global public cloud services market will grow from £11.4bn in 2011 to £42bn by 2016, according to analyst firm Ovum.
"The global public cloud services market will explode over the next five years as uptake soars worldwide," said Ovum cloud computing analyst Laurent Lachal.
"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," he said.
North America is expected to carry on dominating the market but its share is forecast to dip from 54.6 per cent in 2011 to 50 per cent in 2016.
The Western European public cloud services market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.2 per cent from 2011 to 2016 to reach $17.2bn (£10.9bn) – a share of just over 25 per cent – up from $4.4bn (£2.8bn) in 2011.
Asia Pacific will have a CAGR of 33.9 per cent, rising from $2.9bn (£1.8bn) to $12.4bn (£7.9bn).
Software-as-a-service currently dominates the market, accounting for 87 per cent of public cloud services, but this share is expected to drop to 62 per cent as infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service offerings attract more business.
Lachel stressed that this growth in the public cloud market did not mean IT departments would become increasingly obsolete.
"IT teams will take a more holistic approach to connecting networks, hardware and software. They 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," said Lachel.
"But, as ever, preparation is the key to ensuring that cloud computing delivers a positive outcome," he said.
It is encouraging to see that the public cloud services market is ever increasing, and will be worth £42 billion by 2016, as it indicates the cloud computing industry as a whole is growing. We must, however, ask organisations looking to take their IT into the ether by committing to a contract with a public cloud service provider one simple question: have they considered opting for a hybrid cloud service?
Hybrid clouds are becoming increasingly popular because by their very nature, there is not a single requirement that cannot be met by a hybrid solution. Indeed, they inherently offer the best of both worlds: the usage-based fees and simplicity of a public cloud service, accompanied by the flexibility and security of a private cloud.
To give an example of typical hybrid cloud customer: Data which does not have to be so stringently secure, such as pre-sales systems, can be held in a public cloud. At the opposite end of the scale, highly sensitive data, such as an in-house ERP system with customer credit card details can be held in a private cloud to ensure data security and PCI DSS compliance.
For the private cloud element of their hybrid solution, a customer will typically benefit from the security that data is ISO 27001 guaranteed, is stored only in UK locations and is comprehensively supported by full disaster recovery capabilities. He will also know exactly where the data held in his private cloud is located, allowing him to only place systems in the public cloud that aren’t at risk of breaching privacy issues.
So before an organisation signs on the dotted line to agree to a public cloud service, have the benefits of a hybrid cloud model been fully considered?
Keith Bates
Chairman
The Cloud Computing Centre
www.cloudcomputingcentre.co.uk
Posted by: Keith Bates 07 Oct 2011
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