Cloud Industry Will Be Worth $107bn By 2017

The cloud computing industry is set to more than double its estimated worth of $47.4bn (£28.72bn) in 2013, to $107bn (£64.82bn) by 2017, according to research firm IDC.

Speaking at the company’s Directions Conference on Wednesday, data centre and cloud vice president Rick Villars claimed that the cloud’s compound annual growth rate of 23.5% is five times faster than the broader technology market.

Villars says this adoption of cloud services has been driven by scale, complexity and speed as the three main factors. He claims regular businesses do not have the scale the cloud can provide and by using it, they can deliver more complex services more quickly.

Villars added that the increasing use of mobile devices has significantly upped the demand and need for cloud based services as behind every launch of a mobile device, there must be a large data centre to enable it.

According to the IDC researcher, the next wave of the mobile revolution is coming in the form of wearable technology, connected devices and the “Internet of Things” (IoT), increasing the need for more data centres to serve content to these devices.

“The future of the cloud is about the IoT. The cloud is the foundation on which the IoT gets delivered. You have to have the data centre and the cloud before you can deliver the services,” he claimed.

IDC’s research is in line with other reports in the area: global information company IHS Technology predicted in February that global cloud spending will triple between 2011 and 2017.

© 24N.biz