UK cloud computing market 'to double by 2012'
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Analyst predicts that UK rate of spend on cloud computing to reach more than £1bn within next two years
UK spending on cloud computing services will double within the next two years to over £1.2 billion, one IT industry analyst has claimed.
According to TechMarketView, the cloud will become of increasing prominence between now and 2012 as more organisations consider the value of outsourcing IT assets to third-party vendors, which include the likes of Amazon Web Services and Google Apps.
"In the old days, big companies used to generate their own electricity. But they do not do that any more", TechMarketView senior analyst Philip Carnelley told BBC News. "Software is going the same way - let others do the processing. Carnelley added that he and other industry analysts were not "hyping up" the cloud, but that a "genuine shift" was taking place in the UK.
TechMarketView claims that cloud computing-based services currently account for about 7.5% of the UK's total software market.
The biggest obstacle to organisations adopting cloud computing has so far been risks surrounding information security, as confirmed in a recent survey published by IBM, which showed that 80% of CIOs reported security as their chief concern when moving into the cloud.
Cloud Computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) have gained massive support and as the above article states this trend looks set to rise as organisations look to reduce capital expenditure, leverage a flexible payment model to reflect business change and achieve a far more adaptable IT infrastructure.
But it is important that organisations don’t just accept the low cost, vanilla software and identical support contracts on offer. The flexibility and lower costs of hosted, web-based delivery offers organisations a chance to embrace tailored software solutions that truly reflect business needs to deliver long-term value within a highly flexible and affordable IT model.
Though SaaS is great for standard solutions such as office applications and even finance software that has been carefully honed over years to support standard business practice and regulatory requirements, this web-based delivery model also offers organisations access to tailor-made solutions at an unprecedented cost base.
The emergence of cloud computing in tandem with the new generation of rapid application development tools is reducing the cost of customised software, enabling it to be delivered via the flexible usage base payment model, thus making it available to a new marketplace.
Cost will always be a major concern for any IT Director. Removing the burden of internal IT infrastructure management through hosted web-based software delivery has a massive and understandable appeal. It is those organisations that look beyond the basic SaaS model and embrace a hosted tailor-made solution to achieve their exact business requirements and enable ongoing competitive differentiation that will gain not only cost benefits but, more critically, long-term business value.
Nick Thompson
Report this comment »Managing Director, DCSL Software
www.dcslsoftware.com