Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Cloud computing market: $241 billion in 2020

By | April 22, 2011, 2:08am PDT

The global cloud computing market will grow from a $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research.

On the way to all of this growth are a few notable nuggets from the report.

  • For starters, the infrastructure as a service market will peak at $5.9 billion in global revenue in 2014 and then commoditization, price pressure and falling margins kick in. In other words, early wins by Amazon Web Services and Rackspace won’t add up in the long run.
  • Software as a service will be adopted by companies of all sizes. In 2011, SaaS will be a $21.2 billion market and grow to $92.8 billion in 2016. AT that point SaaS comes closer to saturation.
  • BusinessProcess as a service will be notable, but face modest revenue.
  • Virtualization will recede to the background as new technologies take over.

Here’s a look at the big cloud picture through 2020:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

15
Comments

Join the conversation!

@xiaojiekre
Thanks for this read mate. Well, this is my first visit to your blog! But I admire the precious time and effort you put into it, especially into interesting articles you share here.
annunci immobiliari gratuiti
@xiaojiekre

Yes i agree with u,
fiat 500 abarth usa | new iphone release
@berrypoin

Cloud computing have been gradually into the network and begins a large number of application, I really can't imagine that cloud computing era of 2020, this is a major progress of mankind. @ wholesale electronic suppliers
0 Votes
+ -
Numbers
mattermaper 22nd Apr
It's not going to be $241 billion. It'll be $467 billion. Forrester left out the storage on atomic particles vertical. (How can you print any of these numbers with a straight face?)
0 Votes
+ -
@mattermaper I can predict it will rain in Texas on July 3, 2020. Come back and tell me if it's true.

These "analyst" fail to san francisco personal injury lawyer include things that could happen from now until then: a major recession [we hsven't recovered yet from the last one], newer technology, problems with IPv6, ...

Many I'm sure predicted 2009 and 2010 to be banner years for netbooks but didn't take in account for the iPad. Everyone is chiropractor san francisco predicting big things for the iPad 2 but what if RIM's Playbook or Motorola's Xoom actually do well?
0 Votes
+ -
not happening
lylelwr 22nd Apr
Just wait until the first scandal involving stolen data from cloud servers and watch everyone run for cover and abandon the hype of "everything in the cloud".
0 Votes
+ -
Oh jeez
Gis Bun 22nd Apr
Here we go again. Some useless analyst is predicting blah, blah, blah by the year blah.

I can predict it will rain in Texas on July 3, 2020. Come back and tell me if it's true.

These "analyst" fail to include things that could happen from now until then: a major recession [we hsven't recovered yet from the last one], newer technology, problems with IPv6, ...

Many I'm sure predicted 2009 and 2010 to be banner years for netbooks but didn't take in account for the iPad. Everyone is predicting big things for the iPad 2 but what if RIM's Playbook or Motorola's Xoom actually do well?
Howdy! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be okay. I'm absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts. hot girls
@overoll I was more than happy to search out this web-site.I needed to thanks on your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying each little little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to take a look at new stuff you blog post. no essay scholarships
0 Votes
+ -
I love cloud computing!
mldriggs 9th Oct
I'm glad that cloud computing is a technology that is taking off. It has already made my life so much easier, I forgot the Baby Shower Invitations template I was working on but fortunately I uploaded it to my amazon cloud computing account.
0 Votes
+ -
Cloud Computing has become a hype that's why it's raking in lots of money. I like Cloud Computing because of the Accessibility advantage where I can access information about Ontario divorce , Campbell River real estate and regarding how much is my house worth anywhere I go. The only question I have is the security risk.
Cloud computing have been gradually into the network and begins a large number of application, I really can't imagine that cloud computing era of 2020, this is a major progress of mankind. @ wholesale electronic suppliers

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources