Analysts weigh in on 2011 cloud trend

No looking back.

Industry analysts have unanimously predicted that cloud computing will emerge as a mainstream IT platform next year.

In its 2011 predictions released this week, IDC listed the emergence of cloud computing or what it had previously classified as a "disruptive technology" as a top trend for both IT players and the industries they serve.

"In 2011, we expect to see these transformative technologies make the critical transition from early adopter status to early mainstream adoption," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC.

Spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry in 2011, up 30 percent from 2010. 

IDC had forecast worldwide IT spending to be $US1.6 trillion in 2011, an increase of 5.7 percent over 2010. 

And, the "private cloud" model would evolve as infrastructure, software, and service providers collaborate on a range of new offerings and solutions.

In the Asia Pacific analyst firm Ovum described cloud computing as “inescapable in 2011.”

In a similar tone to IDC, Ovum said 2011 will start to show ‘break-through’ cloud engagements of significant scale as enterprises better understand the impact it can have on their businesses.

However, it claimed data centre locations providing public cloud offerings would be "critical" particularly for those vendors targeting government and financial clients.

And it said "private cloud" would remain the top priority for APAC enterprises in 2011 with innovative approaches such as hosted private clouds starting to gain momentum.

“Critically for APAC, there will be a major impact on the partnership strategies of such megavendors which may hinder their appeal in the region – where partnerships are such an essential element”, said Jens Butler, Ovum principal analyst.

Meanwhile, analysts highlighted mobile computing and social networking in enterprises as further 2011 trends.

IDC said mobile computing would continue to explode in 2011.

Ovum said the spread of social media, mobile devices and what would effectively become an ‘enterprise app store’ would continue to disrupt IT strategies.