A recent study reportedly found that the cloud computing services market will generate $45.5 billion in revenue by 2015.

 

According to Telecom Trends International, which conducts research on trends and developments in the telecommunications marketplace, the primary driver of cloud computing is the low cost of the service. However, there is a perception among the users that cloud computing lacks reliability. Since the technology is in the early stages of development, most of the implementations are based on proprietary protocols, the report said.

 

Cloud computing, in simple terms, refers to delivering a hosted service over the Internet. Important cloud computing offerings include Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service ). Cloud computing is particularly useful for small to medium size companies.

 

Cloud services offer significant advantages over traditional offerings. They are delivered on demand, and they are scalable. The service is fully managed by the provider. All of these add up to significant savings on infrastructure and manpower.

 

Innovations in virtualization and distributed computing technologies have contributed for the growth of cloud computing industry. Other factors such as increased access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy have further accelerated the growth.

 

Naqi Jaffery, the report author, said that cloud computing will have a significant but not extraordinary growth over the next seven years.

 

“The growth will be tempered by the current hesitation of the user community to embrace the technology,” he said in a statement.

 

The report found that as the technology becomes more mature and customer confidence in the technology grows, the growth rate will pick up.

 

Despite this, the market is highly challenging owing to the highly competitive environment. The aggressive pricing of cloud-based products by Amazon.com (News - Alert) have set new benchmarks that other vendors will have to match, Jaffer said.

 

Another important finding is that while cloud computing offerings are being launched in the industrialized world, primary engine of growth in the mid-term will be the emerging markets.

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