Although cloud computing is still in its infancy, the technology has already begun changing how IT departments deliver economic value to countries, cities, industries and small businesses. According to IDC, spending on public cloud IT services hit $28 billion in 2011, compared with more than $1.7 trillion in total spending on IT products and services. However, as cloud computing demand grows, IDC expects it will generate about 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015.
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In a survey commissioned by Microsoft, IDC also revealed that in Brazil cloud computing will result in about 85,000 jobs this year; 142,081 jobs in 2013, 242,101 jobs in 2014 and 414,178 jobs in 2015. That expansion will be at a higher rate than what is expected in Russia and the United Kingdom. But, the highest percentage of new jobs, according to the study, will occur in other emerging markets such as China and India, which together should produce about 6.8 million jobs in the cloud computing area between 2011 and 2015.
This growth was partly attributed to the size of their workforces, as well as to the fact that many Chinese and Indian companies are not tied to large investments in legacy systems. Approximately 1.2 million new jobs in the cloud computing space are expected to created in the United States and Canada.
The study also showed that the number of jobs generated by cloud computing will be somewhat proportional to the size of each industry. In some sectors, such as professional services and retail, the high percentage of small and medium-sized businesses will lead the adoption. Other areas, such as financial services and security, will post a slower migration to the public cloud, but may increase the adoption of IT services in private cloud offerings.
Three industries are expected to generate the largest number of jobs related to the cloud: telecommunications and media (2.4 million), financial (1.4 million) and manufacturing (1.3 million).
IDC estimates that last year alone IT cloud services helped organizations of all sizes and all vertical sectors around the world generate more than $400 billion in revenue and 1.5 million new jobs.
The study also predicts that revenues from innovation in cloud may reach $1.1 trillion a year by 2015.
