Public cloud computing will reach almost $70 billion worth of deployments worldwide in 2015, with the top five vertical industries of discrete manufacturing, banking, professional services, process manufacturing and retail accounting for approximately 45% of the total spend for the market, according to new research by International Data Corp.
The report, "Cloud Computing: The Essential Foundation of Industry Digital Transformation—Worldwide and U.S. Cloud Forecast by Vertical, 2015–2019," is the first of four by IDC, which predicts the number of new cloud-based solutions will triple in the next four to five years. The new study provides a vertical forecast by 20 industries for the U.S. and worldwide for three public cloud computing technologies, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
IDC's report adds that the major opportunities for cloud within verticals come from the development of intelligent industry solutions, which are built on top of a new platform that includes cloud as well as big data and analytics, mobile, and social. IT suppliers that showcase the long-term benefits and the true value of the cloud as a platform in a given vertical, such as efficiency gains in business processes and improvement in customer acquisition/experience, will be most successful. The ease of purchasing cloud-based solutions has helped transfer buying power from IT to functional lines of business like marketing, finance, and operations. Security and regulatory issues remain the biggest barrier for cloud adoption across industries like government and financial services, while loss of perceived control over IT assets and massive legacy systems are also stumbling blocks for using cloud.
"The technological innovations and enabling capabilities unleashed by cloud have fostered new opportunities across the industries," says Eileen Smith, program manager, IDC Global Technology and Research Group. "As a result, it is necessary for both technology vendors and buyers to recognize the industry drivers and barriers of cloud deployment, to understand the business transformation brought by cloud, and to act upon the changes that will shape business and technology strategy in the coming years."