All major software vendors will offer cloud-based platforms in 2011

With most enterprises having migrated at least some of their core business software by 2015

All the leading software vendors and large cloud specialists will introduce new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings in 2011, according to analyst firm Gartner.

This will result in most enterprises having at least some of their core business software hosted in the cloud using PaaS by 2015.

"By the end of 2011, the battle for leadership in PaaS will have taken off within the software industry," said Yefim Natis, vice president and analyst at Gartner.

"Early consolidation of specialised PaaS offerings and PaaS suites will also be evident. Users can expect a wave of innovation as well as hype," he added.

PaaS refers to the middle layer of the software stack, and contains all application infrastructure services.

It is the technology that acts as a go-between for the underlying infrastructure and overlaying application software.

Users will continue to turn to cloud computing as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and PaaS reach acceptable levels of maturity, and where new innovative technological and business models become necessary to retain a competitive advantage, Natis said.

"These pre-integrated suites will be more attractive than the burdensome traditional on-premise middleware normally used to support a project," said Natis.