Worldwide spending on public IT cloud services will be more than US$40 billion in 2012 and is expected to approach US$100 billion in 2016, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC). Over the 2012–2016 forecast period, public IT cloud services will enjoy a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4%, five times that of the IT industry overall, as companies accelerate their shift to the cloud services model for IT consumption.
"The IT industry is in the midst of an important transformative period as companies invest in the technologies that will drive growth and innovation over the next two to three decades," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. "By the end of the decade, IDC expects at least 80% of the industry's growth, and enterprises' highest-value leverage of IT, will be driven by cloud services and the other 3rd Platform technologies."