Public IT Cloud Services to Reach $43.2 Billion in 2016: IDC

As more enterprises and consumers continue to invest in public cloud services, International Data Corporation predicts that U.S. revenue in this segment will grow from $18.5 billion in 2011 to $43.2 billion in 2016, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5 percent over the forecast period.

The new report focuses on the public cloud services that are shared among unrelated enterprises and consumers, open to an environment of potential users, and designed for a market, not a single enterprise. The forecast is segmented by five functional technology categories and by six vertical sectors.

The three verticals that accounted for more than 50 percent of the spending in 2011 are discrete manufacturing, professional services, and process manufacturing, according to Eileen Smith, program manager in IDC’s (News - Alert) Global Technology and Industry Research Organization.

“This is not surprising as these industries are typically less risk averse and compliance focused,” Smith said in a statement. “Communications and media, education, and construction were found to be the fastest growing verticals. We expect the media portion of the communications and media vertical to continue to be one of the main users of storage on demand to enable continuous service for content-heavy customer offerings.”

Services and distribution accounts for the largest sector of spending, with 30.3 percent of total revenue in 2011. Professional services alone accounted for nearly 40 percent of the entire category in 2011.

Manufacturing and resources, the second-largest vertical sector, accounted for 24 percent of total public IT cloud services in 2011. Discrete manufacturing alone accounted for 46.7 percent of the entire category in 2011.

And finally, infrastructure, the fastest-growing sector with a 19.6 percent five-year CAGR, accounted for 12.3 percent of spending in 2011 and will account for 12.9 percent of spending by 2016.

In a separate prediction earlier this fall, Gartner (News - Alert) estimated the global cloud services market will grow by nearly 20 percent worldwide and is estimated to touch nearly $109 billion by the end of 2012.

Despite major economic crisis in Europe – one of the big cloud consumer regions – and signs that Chinese economic edifice is shaky, spending on cloud services is staggering, the firm revealed.

Gartner’s “Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2011-2016, 2Q12 Update” report also predicts that the cloud services market will rise to $206.6 billion by 2016, with both IaaS and cloud management/security services growing substantially.