... around $1.1 trillion annually in worldwide revenues.
"Compared with last year's cloud professional services forecast, IDC predicts higher spending during 2011 and 2012 but lower spending over the remaining forecast period," says Gard Little, IDC's research director, IT Consulting and System Integration Research.
"IDC believes increased spending is due not only to acceleration in the adoption of cloud services but also to the buildout of cloud application platforms and infrastructure."
Three trends are behind the job boom:
- Mobility:
Apps have found a home in the cloud. With tablet sales going strong and speculation that TV apps will become available in the not-so distant future, the need for cloud services will only increase.
- Social Networking:
Social networks, too, are proud cloud residents. Now that social networking has gone mainstream, look for more companies to connect employees and customers on popular sites or on social networks of their own.
- Big Data:
Currently users worldwide store about 329 exabytes of personal data – photos, videos and yes, even old-fashioned text. That number will balloon to 4.1 zettabytes in less than five years and a third of it will be stored in the cloud. Big Data, the business of storing, securing and making sense of digital information in its myriad forms is expected to balloon in size and become a $40 billion business in just three years.
Among the more promising careers will be in data analysis, which can include trawling through the mountain of consumer information that companies collect and store in the cloud. Data analysts look for patterns in customer data that can boost sales or generate customer loyalty.
Online travel agent, Orbitz.com is only one of hundreds of companies using data to increase sales. For example, Orbitz recently discovered that Mac users spend as much as 30% more on hotels than those accessing the site on PCs. With that in mind, Orbitz started to capitalize on this information and recommend more luxurious hotels to Mac users.
To read the unabridged Forbes.com article click here.