The Top Five Vertical Markets for IaaS Offerings

The cloud computing phenomenon now includes a set of services and technologies that enable the delivery of on-demand computing services over the Internet in real-time, allowing end-users instant access to data and applications from any device with online access.

Although still in its infancy, gaining traction has not been a problem. According to the latest market study by In-Stat, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is set to grow to roughly $4 billion by 2015.

"Growth is expected in all public cloud service segments," says Greg Potter, Analyst at In-Stat.

Many Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications have been around for a long time, but now with the advent of entire platforms for these applications they're gaining the necessary visibility among businesses to reach renewed momentum in the marketplace.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (SaaS) is also gaining increased traction, especially in the small business market.

In-Stat's latest market study includes the following insights:

• SaaS (software as a service) is poised to grow 142 percent between 2010 and 2015.
• Overall public cloud computing (IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS) is set to grow 153 percent from 2010 to 2015.
• Small business (5 to 99 employees) is the fastest growing size segment growing from $2.5 billion by 2010 to $6.6 billion by 2015.
• Small business account for over half of the market in SaaS and IaaS.

According to the In-Stat assessment, the top five vertical markets for IaaS offerings, in terms of 2011 market revenue, will be hospitality and food, healthcare and social services, and retail trade. The bottom 5 verticals will be mining, forestry, fishing, and agricultural services and utilities.