Cloud computing is reshaping the IT marketplace, creating new opportunities for suppliers and catalyzing changes in traditional IT offerings. Over the next five years, IDC expects spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold, reaching $42 billion by 2012 and accounting for 9% of revenues in five key market segments. More importantly, spending on cloud computing will accelerate throughout the forecast period, capturing 25% of IT spending growth in 2012 and nearly a third of growth the following year. IDC expects the cloud adoption trend to be amplified by the current financial crisis. The cloud model offers a much cheaper way for businesses to acquire and use IT – in an economic downturn, the appeal of that cost advantage will be greatly magnified. This advantage is especially important for small and medium businesses, a sector that will be key target in any plan for recovery.

Our survey results suggest we’re entering a period of accelerating IT cloud services adoption, with the portion of organizations exhibiting significant adoption moving from 15-25% today to 25-45% in three years. It’s not a big leap to consider - given the chart above and the chart below - that IT cloud services are either at, or getting very close to, the "crossing the chasm" stage.

If this is so, the implication for IT suppliers is very clear: the next three years, as IT cloud services expand from Early Adopters to the Early Majority, is the critical time to develop strong cloud offerings, and play a leadership role in bringing customers, your own organization and your partner ecosystem “across the chasm”. As Moore famously points out, suppliers who fail to seriously contend for a leadership role will be left with decidedly minority share as their reward.

Many people reasonably wonder if the growing interest in cloud computing is a just a short term phenomenon - the latest hype destined to join other fads in the tech market trash bin. IDC believes that the rapid emergence of cloud services, and the cloud computing model underpinning those services, are ushering in a fundamentally new era of growth and competition in the IT market.  
The main reason we believe this is so, is that the cloud computing shift is being driven not just by the emergence of new products and technologies, but by a “perfect storm” of market forces, along three vectors: 1) the search for growth (money) in important new segments, 2) the shortcomings of traditional approaches in capturing that growth, and - in case those two weren’t enough to drive entrenched market players into action - 3) competitive pressure from disrupters, with little to lose and everything to gain from pushing the new model.

The IDC Cloud Computing Conference is specially designed for senior IT and line of business executives evaluating and making purchasing decisions in the areas of on-demand infrastructure and software services. Attendees will learn which areas of the cloud are most widely adopted and which vendors are taking a leadership role. Case studies will focus on how cloud computing can increase capacity and extend IT's capabilities with minimal cost and significant flexibility and speed. Using first hand experiences from IDC analysts and end user case studies, this event will provide practical information, results from early adopters, and strategies to optimally blend on-premise to an on-demand business models. 
Key areas that will be addressed at this conference will include:

• Cloud Services & Cloud Computing: Two trends that are redefining the way IT will be deployed in business for the next twenty years
• The Transformative Interplay between Cloud & Traditional IT Offerings
• What Does Cloud Services Mean To Business And How Can An Organization Best Start Using Services To Improve Their Performance?
• IDC Findings: Cloud Computing and Services Benefits, Challenges and Spending Intentions for Asia Pacific End-Users
• Cloud Computing & the SMB Market: Drivers & Opportunities
• Shifting Priorities And Opportunities for Traditional Service Providers

This power packed half-day event is designed for CEO, CFO, CTO, CIO, MDs, Directors, VPs, Research & Development, IT Directors & Project Officers, IT Administrators / Engineers, Systems Architect/Designers from some of these industries:

• Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals
• Medical & Healthcare
• Banking & Finance
• Insurance and Investment houses
• Energy & Utilities
• Government bodies and Associations
• Travel & Transportation services
• Warehousing & Logistics
• Energy & Utilities
• Engineering
• FMCG
• Services 
• Information & Communication Technology
• Telecommunications & Media

Registration through IDC Circle only
You can register for this event on the IDC Circle at www.IDCcircle.com on a complimentary basis (redemption of 150 IDC points) if you are a decision maker in an IT role from non-vendor organizations only otherwise a conference fee of S$500 applies. IDC reserves the right to decline any registration deemed inappropriate both online and on-site.

• If you are not a member of the IDC Circle, please click here to become a member (membership is free) and register for this event.
• If you are already a member of the IDC Circle, please click here to login and register for this event.

For any registration queries, please contact Joyes Lim at email joyeslim@idc.com or tel: +65 6829 7750.

If you are a member of the press, please register here instead.