Majority of the more than 100 software company CEOs and CFOs feel cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) will fuel the largest amount of spending in the software industry in the next 12 months. 

Majority of respondents expect their company will grow by at least 20 percent in 2011. Further, these companies will see significant hiring during the period, according to a Sand Hill Group survey.

According to the “Software CEO/CFO Outlook 2011” study conducted by Sand Hill Group and underwritten by Adaptive Planning and Intacct, the software industry continues to come out itself out of recession. 

While many industries continue to struggle, the CEOs and CFOs are extremely bullish on the outlook for their own companies. 

More than three-quarters said that their company had already returned to pre-recession growth levels or would reach those levels this year. Nearly two thirds of the surveyed expect their company to grow by at least 20 percent, including more than one quarter of the respondents who expect their growth rate to top 50 percent in 2011.

According to the survey, majority of respondents feel cloud computing and SaaS/on-demand will be the two most frequent types of software projects driving business spending in the next 12 months. For more than 50 percent of the respondents, the biggest influence driving software spending would be the need to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.

The global cloud computing market is continuing to grow at high speed. Analyst firm 451 Market Monitor predicted that it expects the cloud computing marketplace to reach $16.7 billion in revenue by 2013, up from $8.7 billion in 2010.