Study: Public cloud market to reach US$191b by 2020

A NEW study by Forrester Research shows that the public cloud market will reach US$191 billion by 2020, up from US$58 billion in 2013. Cloud applications will lead this growth and will total US$133 billion in 2020. Cloud platforms will generate US$44 billion and cloud business services will reach US$14 billion.

Forrester's VP and principal analyst, James Staten, notes that the cloud market is growing faster than initially projected. He adds that while the past several years can best be characterised as exploratory for most enterprises, cloud services and cloud platforms are now an undeniable part of the IT landscape.

Based on Forrester enterprise CIO (chief information officer) inquiries, the shift has begun from exploration of cloud as a potential option to rationalisation of cloud services within the overall IT portfolio, says Mr Staten.