Retail and distribution sectors to benefit most from the cloud

These sectors will see more than £197bn in value created

The distribution, retail and hotel sectors across Europe stand to benefit most from cloud services, with a new report anticipating that value of more than €233bn (£197bn) will be created over the next five years.

The second cloud dividend report from the EMC and the Centre for Economics and Business Research also argues that the banking and finance sectors will see more than €180bn in economic benefit over the same period.

In addition, it states that the public sector could see the creation of 800,000 jobs as a result of the cloud.

The report argues that a hybrid cloud model - a combination of internal and external resources where a private cloud serves as the gateway for access to the public cloud - will provide organisations with the most flexibility.

Critical to businesses achieving the competitive advantage presented by cloud computing is the virtualisation of core and revenue-generating applications.

Sandra Hamilton, vice president EMEA at EMC Consulting, said: "This [virtualisation] will lead to the powerful growth and productivity gains which, as the new report shows, can lead to meaningful job creation across the EMEA."