The UK will have the most cloud-related jobs in Europe in 2012, according to a Microsoft-sponsored IDC report, but next year it will overtaken by Germany.

IDC estimates that there will be 109,262 cloud-related jobs in the UK this year, with Germany close behind on 108,511. Germany will take over pole position in 2013 though, relegating the UK to second place at least until 2015.

Worldwide, cloud computing will create up to 14 million jobs over the next four years by triggering business growth, the study claimed. "Increased business revenue from the IT innovation enabled by cloud could reach $1.1 trillion a year by 2015," it said.

The jobs figure was net of the number of IT jobs destroyed by cloud computing. "We feel most [affected] IT jobs will be shifted – perhaps from support or systems management to development and business analysis – and some lost jobs will migrate to the cloud suppliers," John Gantz, author of the report, told Information Age. "The remainder [of jobs lost] will be small in comparison to the jobs gained in the non-IT functions."

China and India top the table of cloud related jobs, with 2.5 million in China this year and 1 million in India. Gantz said that although China and India are thought of as emerging markets, they have been early cloud adopters. "[China and India are] not bound to existing systems. They’ve skipped that step, so there’s less holding them back," he said.

Developed countries where businesses are tied to legacy systems will nevertheless enjoy growth following cloud adoption, Gantz projected. "Enterprises that embrace cloud computing reduce the amount of IT time and budget devoted to legacy systems and routine upgrades, which then increases the time and budget they have for more innovative projects," he claimed,