More than 30 percent of enterprises worldwide are deploying at least one cloud solution, according to a new survey by Visiongain. The IT analytics and media specialist’s latest report, titled “Cloud: Moving into the Realm of an Essential IT Strategy,” examines the fast-growing cloud services market and looks at the state of enterprise cloud market and how businesses can leverage cloud services to cut costs, improve efficiency and drive innovation within their organization.
The report noted the cloud services market is “thriving” with numerous offerings from a spate of diverse vendors. “This dynamic market is quickly maturing and presenting a number of market opportunities for vendors and businesses alike,” the report said. “The broad variety of innovative solutions in software, platforms and infrastructure means that there is a cloud service available for many different business demands, ranging from simple off-site data storage to more complex software development on cloud platforms.”
The Visiongain report was written to help businesses find their way around a large and increasingly populated market by presenting a breakdown of the current vendor landscape in the three major cloud services: SaaS (software-as-a-service), PaaS (platform-as-a-service) and IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service). The company said the research will help businesses better understand the different services and the suitability of the each service type and deployment model to specific business needs.
The report analyzes the current enterprise cloud services markets in North America, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. SaaS services represent the largest share of the cloud services market, representing 69 percent of all services in 2011. The popularity of SaaS services is driving increased interest in IaaS and PaaS services as businesses become more comfortable with the cloud.
Awareness of data protection legislation, terms and conditions of SLAs (service-level agreements) and a better understanding of the nature of cloud services are shaping the cloud ecosystem and paving the way for market consolidation. The report also offers an overview of the major players in the different cloud submarkets and their service offerings.
“The report gives a holistic view of cloud computing and its relevance to the business segment, with a critical analysis of how companies can effectively leverage the cloud to best suit their needs,” noted a company release. “The report looks at established, emerging and innovating vendors, their different offerings and the current and future value of the cloud market on a global and regional level.”