Private cloud technology to give way to hybrids

That's the message from a report by consulting firm BroadGroup, which reveals that private cloud will boost the opportunity for third party data centre outsourcing, but that eventually, hybrid cloud – using public cloud for non-critical applications – will improve efficiencies further. Its report, 'Competing in the clouds: emerging strategies for enterprise data centres', suggests that private cloud will be the fastest growing segment for the foreseeable future in the enterprise market. However, it also advises that migrating to cloud services represents a new way of operating, and will require a change in mindset by business IT leaders, because 'IT as a Service' introduces very different business and operational models. The report also indicates that in the short term, most companies will be able to cope with growing data demands using their existing infrastructure. However, as companies are confronted by the need to upgrade or migrate to private cloud to secure greater business agility, data centres will be the principal beneficiary, with space doubling from its current level over the next five years. "The signs are that a complex and interesting market structure will evolve over time," comments Marion Howard Healy, the report author and a senior consultant at BroadGroup. "A significantly higher proportion of enterprise data centre space will be outsourced by 2015. In our view this could be as much as 35% by 2015."