Service Management in the Cloud – the $120 billion question

The Cloud. Can you really avoid it? The Cloud market is expected to grow to $121 billion dollars in 2015, a 26% compound annual growth rate from 2010's US$37 billion ⁽ⁱ⁾. Such growth is set to continue, with research showing that 81% of organisations forecast a move to the Cloud for 50% of their future transactions.

So what are the drivers for the growth in the cloud market? With 60% of CIOs stating that their number one priority is Cloud computing ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾, a major driver has been the adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) technology. By 2017, SaaS is set to generate almost 60% of Cloud revenues ⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾. The move to SaaS is primarily driven by its ability to offer greater scalability, higher efficiencies with no loss of functionality, and reduced application costs, with a move to the Cloud offering annual savings of over 20%.

How are these trends reflected in the Service Management market? IDC Research sponsored by Axios highlighted that every second company that now uses on-premise IT Service Management software plans to launch a cloud-based version within the next two years ^(iv). For many organisations, cloud has already become mainstream and their ITSM solution may be the 3rd or 4th major application that they have moved to the cloud. The uptake of Exchange365 in particular has increased businesses faith in cloud provision and allowed them to concentrate on their core business while cloud providers look after the infrastructure.

Scott Leckie, CTO at Axios Systems, said "We're seeing a shift in the market, with SaaS gaining substantial traction over the past year. Why is Service Management so suitable for cloud? For us, the move has been driven by a significant increase in user mobility and range of devices from which users require access to technology, anywhere and at any time. SaaS technologies fully support this, and provide compliance without sacrificing on functionality or standards for data security or speed."

Tasos Symeonides, CEO at Axios Systems, said "Here at Axios, we're seeing a 25% compound annual growth rate in the uptake of SaaS, which reflects the current trends in the Cloud industry as a whole. IT leaders are seeing the benefits of moving to the Cloud, allowing them to be more agile and responsive to business needs. Ultimately this drives greater efficiencies. Our IT Service Management solution, assyst, provides the technology you need over the web, without any of the application management overheads. All you require is a browser-enabled desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. That means no new infrastructure, no server application, no desktop installs, no upgrade projects. No hassle."

⁽ⁱ⁾ Cloud Computing Market: Global Forecast (2010 – 2015): marketsandmarkets.com
⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ http://cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/demystifying-the-cloud.jpg
⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2013–2017 Forecast
^(iv) IT Service Management in Deutschland 2014, ITSM im Spannungsfeld von Cloud Computing und Enterprise Mobility, Mark Alexander Schulte for IDC