IT managers have their heads in the clouds!

Eager to simplify their current IT environments and introduce new initiatives to enhance overall business value, IT leaders are embracing server cloud computing as a viable option for decreasing complexity by adopting converged systems that arrive pre-integrated and ready for use (private cloud) or are offsite entirely (public cloud). According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide revenue for servers deployed to public clouds will reach $3.6 billion in 2015 while private cloud server revenue will balloon to $5.8 billion.

“These evolutionary, and revolutionary, changes in IT deployment and business attitudes are having a profound impact on traditional IT environments,” said Katie Broderick, senior research analyst, Enterprise Platforms and Datacentre Trends and Strategies. “Cloud computing can dramatically simplify administrating and managing many companies’ datacentres and position IT as a service organisation for the rest of the company. Off-loading some of the more mundane tasks to the cloud (public or private) and freeing up manpower to focus on adding value to the business is critical to driving cloud adoption. But, up-front costs are real, and choosing the right vendor to manage or deploy an environment is equally important.”

IDC’s research found that public clouds are generally being built on simpler server hardware with a focus on energy efficiency, density, and cost control. The reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) for public clouds tends to be built into the software layer (through failover and virtualisation). As a result, public cloud computing is a unit story with lower average selling values (ASVs) than an average x86-based server. IDC forecasts the number of servers shipped for deployment in public clouds will reach more than 1.2 million in 2015, representing a 2011-2015 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1%.

In contrast, private cloud systems are being built on higher-end hardware with more memory, I/O bandwidth, and advanced CPU capabilities. Private clouds are also more reliant on the hardware for their RAS capabilities. Consequently, private clouds represent a value market with larger converged systems selling at higher ASVs than the average x86 system. IDC expects more than 570,000 servers will be shipped for deployment into private clouds in 2015, representing a five-year CAGR of 22.4%.