IDC Cloud – An IDC Four Pillar Research Area

IDC cloud research helps identify new business models being adopted to implement cloud services including licensing and pricing models, delivery models, budget implications, etc...

Key Ways IDC Can Help Clients Analyze Cloud Opportunities:

• IDC provides a cloud definition and taxonomy
• IDC research helps organizations identify who they should be partnering with to optimize their cloud opportunities
• IDC helps companies understand how to gain visibility as part of the cloud phenomenon and how to differentiate their offering
• IDC identifies new business models being adopted to implement cloud services including licensing models, pricing models, delivery models, budgeting implications for users, governance, etc...

Related Services

• Asia/Pacific Cloud Services and Technologies
• Canadian Cloud Services: Overview
• Central and Eastern European Cloud and Hosting Services
• Central and Eastern European Cloud Services
• China Cloud Market
• Cloud Services: Global Overview
• Japan Cloud Services
• Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker

Software cloud concerns addressed in IDC research include identifying the biggest cloud opportunities and the enablers for ISVs investigating becoming a cloud service provider.

Software Cloud Concerns Addressed in IDC Research:

• What does it mean to customers and software vendors to service enable their traditional software? What are the implications, best practices, and different models?
• What are the biggest cloud opportunities in software and what are the enablers and inhibitors for ISVs investigating becoming a cloud service provider or partnering with them?
• How deeply penetrated is cloud by category (Applications, AD&D, Infrastructure) and what are IDC projections on associated opportunities?
• How can software companies best manage this new business model and what types of applications are developers using to develop on platform as a service (PaaS)?

Related Services

• Business Analytics Solutions
• BuyerPulse Deals Database: Worldwide Cloud and Enterprise System Management
• BuyerPulse Deals Database: Worldwide Cloud Software (SaaS and PaaS)
• Cloud and Virtualization System Software
• CRM Applications and Customer Experience
• Enterprise Social Networks and Collaborative Technologies
• European Datacenter Life-cycle and Private Cloud Services
• European Public Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
• SaaS and Cloud Software
• Small and Medium Business Markets: Cloud and Enterprise Applications
• Software Licensing and Provisioning

Key concerns addressed in IDC research include how organizations can keep up with new architectural paradigms and offer more flexibility with less customization and more integration.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Key Concerns Addressed in IDC Research:

Vendor concerns:
• How big is the PaaS opportunity? How does it fit with my core competencies? What is the competitive landscape?
• How can my organization keep up with new architectural paradigms? How do I offer more flexibility, less customization, but more integration?
• What is the best governance model? What is the pricing structure? How do I attract developers?

Customer concerns:
• What is the real benefit to developing on a PaaS platform? What are the risks, who has the liability, what should I negotiate for in my PaaS contract?

Related Services

• Application Life-Cycle Management
• PaaS and Cloud Application Platforms

IDC's cloud infrastructure research covers spending on infrastructure hardware, software and services as well as spending by organization on cloud-based IT infrastructure services

Key Infrastructure Concerns Addressed in IDC Cloud Research:

• How is the build out of cloud-based IT and platform service providers effecting product demand and product design for storage, server, and infrastructure software products?
• What are the primary use cases for cloud-based IT infrastructure services (storage, compute, management)?
• What impact do "private clouds" have on the competitive positioning of public cloud infrastructure services?
• How deeply will cloud-based infrastructure services penetrate existing storage and server hardware markets and where will it have the greatest impact?

Related Services

• BuyerPulse Analysis: Identity and Access Management
• Canadian Infrastructure and Cloud Solutions
• Cloud and Virtualization System Software
• Enterprise Servers: Technology Markets
• Enterprise System Management Software
• Europe, Middle East and Africa Telco Cloud Opportunities
• Hosting Infrastructure Services
• IT Cloud Decision Economics
• Security Products
• Security Services
• Storage Solutions: Storage and the Cloud (report series)

Key services concerns addressed by IDC research include what professional services firms' consulting offerings, practice areas, and staffing strategies are around cloud and how they winning deals.

Services Cloud Key Concerns Addressed in IDC Research

• How are IT or application outsourcers moving from traditional outsourcing to providing more of a service provision/rental model?
• What is the competitive landscape for cloud consulting services? What is the demand projected to be?
• How are business process outsourcers moving from traditional outsourcing of fully managing business processes to offering processing services required to support e-commerce transactions, or specific business functions like payroll, HR, F&A or customer care requirements delivered via a cloud-like environment?

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• Application Development, Testing and Management Services
• BuyerPulse Deals Database: Cloud Services (IaaS)
• Canadian Cloud and Application Services
• Canadian Strategic Sourcing and Cloud Services
• Central and Eastern European Cloud Services
• Central and Eastern European Cloud and Hosting Services
• Cloud Services: The Professional Services Opportunity
• European Datacenter Life-cycle and Private Cloud Services
• Hosting Infrastructure Services
• HR, Talent and Learning Strategies and Services
• IT Education and Certification
• Outsourcing and the Impact of Cloud Services
• Worldwide Customer Care BPO Services
• Worldwide Finance, Accounting & BPO Services

Key concerns addressed by IDC research includes the impact of cloud computing on the datacenter networking architecture.

Related Services

• Communications Service Provider Operations
• Datacenter Networks
• Enterprise Servers: Technology Markets
• Storage Solutions: Storage and the Cloud