Strategic Facilities

The latest craze in the IT (Information Technology) sector is Cloud Computing. Some call it the new frontier. The Wild West is here, bringing with it opportunities for new companies. Conferences on this topic are already in their second or third year. Companies in this space are attracting venture capital funds even during the Global Financial Crisis. IDC estimates the market size for Cloud Computing to be at USD $42 Billion by 2012, with an annual growth rate of 27%. Extending this to 2020, the market size for Cloud Computing stands at an astronomical $284 Billion. With the growing shift in application software development from PC to Data Centres and Clouds, we expect that this opportunity will increase even higher. With these projections, so many vendors and service providers have got into the game and so much press activity has taken place. Gartner’s 2009 IT Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, released this July, places “Cloud Computing” at the peak of the “hype cycle”. The lead adopter phase is over and a period of uncertainty, innovation and consolidation has begun as companies find practical uses for Cloud Computing.