Service providers urged to bundle cloud services for SMEs

Service providers must embrace cloud services and bundle them into their solutions for SMEs as well as large enterprises, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason.
The report, entitled Enterprise cloud services: worldwide forecast 2010–2015, states that the global market for enterprise cloud-based services will grow from US$12.1bn (EUR9.4bn) in 2010 to US$35.6bn (EUR27.5bn) in 2015.
“The business model behind cloud services is similar to that behind established communications network services. A service provider amortises its upfront datacentre-related capital investment over a period of months, coinciding with the monthly fees charged to end-user enterprises for the use of the infrastructure,” says Steve Hilton, report author and principal analyst at Analysys Mason.
“For a service provider, this model should be very comfortable,” he adds. “Less comfortable is the unregulated nature of the business – there is no guaranteed return on investment – and the non-telecoms-centric services they will be required to market and sell.”
According to the report, the year-on-year growth rate will be 43 percent in 2011, but will decrease to 13 percent over the next five years. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) will account for 70 percent of revenue in 2010, while the share taken by infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) will increase from 30 percent to 40 percent over the next five years.
It says by 2015, registered IT and application partners – such as agents, systems integrators, dealers and resellers – will account for 39 percent of this revenue. IT and application vendors will take 36 percent, while telecoms and cable TV operators will secure a 23 percent share.