Gartner Says Cloud Computing Heralds An Evolution of Business, No Less Influential than the Era of E-Business

Analysts Discuss the Cloud Computing Scenario during Gartner CIO And IT Executive Summit 2010, 23 24 November, in Mumbai

STAMFORD, Conn. - After many years of germination, the core ideas at the heart of cloud computing — pay for use, mulitenancy, external services — appear to be resonating more strongly for more people, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business — no less influential than the era of e-business — in positive and negative ways,” said Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner fellow. “Overall, there are very real trends toward cloud platforms and also toward massively scalable processing. Virtualization, service orientation and the Internet have converged to sponsor a phenomenon that enables individuals and businesses to choose how they’ll acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models.”

There continues to be great diversity of activity, maturity and growth among the many different elements of the overall cloud services marketplace. Gartner analysts said they are seeing an acceleration of adoption of cloud computing and cloud services among enterprises, and an explosion of supply-side activity as technology providers maneuver to exploit the growing commercial opportunity.

“The potential benefits of cloud are a shift from ’capacity’ on demand to ‘capability’ on demand, a reduced cost of computing resources and a shift from technology use to ‘value’ consumption,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner.

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner deliver the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to approximately 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has approximately 4,300 associates, including approximately 1,200 research analysts and consultants serving clients in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.