Aussie public cloud services market worth $305 million: Telsyte

Over 50 per cent of 315 CIOs and IT executives surveyed by analyst firm Telsyte are now using public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), according to a new report.

The Australian Infrastructure Cloud Computing Market Study 2014 found that there was a rise in adoption during 2013 as more local cloud service providers emerged.

“There was a jump from 2012 to 2013 as the market was coming a relatively small base of 23 per cent penetration for cloud IaaS services,” said Telsyte senior analyst Rodney Gedda.

The study found that the public cloud IaaS market in Australia is currently worth $305 million with Telsyte forecasting that it will rise to $650 million by 2018 as more CIOs use a mix of public and hybrid cloud services.

For example, 30 per cent of the 315 CIOs surveyed indicated that they were using hybrid cloud.

“The hybrid cloud architecture, and dealing with multiple cloud service providers, both present opportunities for more automation and process improvement,” he said.

The study also found that some Australian CIOs have few qualms about international cloud providers. Approximately two thirds of those surveyed were using offshore cloud service providers while an additional 46 per cent of CIOs indicated that they are “not subject to any restrictions” when it comes to using overseas cloud services.

Gedda pointed out that the multi-national firms such as Amazon Web Services have made inroads into Australia and local providers will need to “compete on features and service levels” rather than telling potential clients that data is hosted in Australia.

In 2012, Telsyte surveyed 260 CIOs for its annual lt;igt;Australian Infrastructure amp; Cloud Computing Market Studylt;/igt; and found that two-thirds of enterprises are buying IaaS or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) from an overseas cloud service provider.

At the time, Gedda said that for many CIOs the advent of on-demand cloud services has provided an option for service delivery without the need to manage physical infrastructure.

The 2012 study found that 36 per cent of enterprises surveyed had no restrictions on data being sent offshore, creating an opportunity for global cloud providers to compete with local operators.

“However, a significant 29 per cent of CIOs say their organisation’s data cannot leave Australia,” he said at the time.

This was because these CIOs were working in industries that have data location restrictions, such as financial services.

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