As more companies and those in emerging markets in
particular continue to transition away from
legacy systems and move production environments into cloud based models,
it is not difficult to believe that the fastest-growing segment within the IT
outsourcing (ITO)market is public cloud services (specifically, the cloud-based
infrastructure-as-a-service, or IaaS, segment). However, the magnitude of this
growth was confirmed by Gartner Research earlier this month. According to
Gartner’s forecast analysis
IT Outsourcing,
Worldwide, 2010-2016, 2012 Update, purchasing computing power from sources
beyond the privately owned data centre or on-site room of services is driving increasingly
rapid business growth in this area.
Gartner Research has predicted that, for the first time, the
worldwide spend on IT outsourcing will surpass $250 billion in 2012. This
growth is due in large part to the increased availability of IT through cloud
services platforms. Gartner also found that cloud compute services are expected
to grow 48.7% in 2012 to $5.0 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 2011.
“Today, cloud compute services primarily provide automation
of basic functions,” said Gregor Petri, research director at Gartner. “As
next-generation business applications come to market and existing applications
are migrated to use automated operations and monitoring, increased value in
terms of service consistency, agility and personnel reduction will be
delivered.”
At the same time, ongoing privacy and compliance concerns
may have a negative impact on growth in some regions, Petri added, especially
if providers take their time in bringing localized solutions to market.
Gartner’s forecast also revealed the application outsourcing
(AO) segment is expected to reach $40.7 billion this year, a slight increase
from 2011. This growth reflects a need among enterprises for continued management
of extensive legacy application environments, as well as their commercial
off-the-shelf packages which can help determine the course of the business.
