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Forecast: Certain Verticals Will Accelerate Public Cloud Growth

Expenditures for public cloud services will grow to nearly $30 billion over the next three years, according to a report released this week by market researcher IDC.

The latest forecast projects a compounded annual growth rate of 21.6 percent since 2009 when revenues were $11 billion. With a number of reports showing robust growth for cloud computing services, this one is noteworthy because it looks at public cloud service revenues from 18 vertical industries.

IDC found that professional services, communications, media and manufacturing markets would generate the most revenue for public cloud service providers. Professional services is especially high on the radar because of the number of midsized companies that are "information-dependent" that will use software-as-a-services, or SaaS.

The services and distribution sector, which includes retail, wholesale professional services, consumer and recreational services, and transportation, accounts for the largest share of revenue. That sector, now a $3 billion market, will nearly triple to $8.5 billion by 2014, according to IDC.

Other verticals that are regulated or have significant security and/or privacy concerns will limit their use of public cloud services to e-mail, messaging and collaboration. Those industries include government, banking and healthcare.

The latter will only account for 5 percent of public cloud revenue in 2014, yet it will post CAGR of 23 percent.

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 10, 2011


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