Over 40% of Australian organisations planning a switch to cloud

More than 40% of Australian organisations are planning to switch at least some of their outsourced IT services to the cloud within the next two years, a new study has revealed.

IDC’s Australia Managed Services Study, June 2012 also predicts the combined growth in revenue during 2013 from cloud-based applications, system integration and network consulting will grow by 27% year-on-year.

Overall, the Australian IT services market is forecasted to grow from $15 billion in 2012 to $17.6 billion in 2017, representing a compound annual growth rate of 3.2% for the five-year period 2013-2017.

“Responding to these changes, over the course of the next five years, IT services providers will increasingly change their business models to mimic those of pure-play cloud providers by making strategic investments,” says Raj Mudaliar, a senior market analyst of IDC’s Australia IT services research group.

The rapid adoption of cloud-based services is likely to cause a shift in the nature of IT services used by Australian enterprises.

“These investments will incorporate the different elements of a digital services supply chain that includes a larger footprint of cloud datacenter infrastructure; an app store for services; an integrated, policy-based management system for services procurement, a cloud factory; an ‘independent’ testing service; and/or sense-predict-respond capabilities, to name a few.”