Merrill Lynch recently issued a research note: “The Cloud Wars: $100+ billion at stake” (07 May 2008). The analysts write that by 2011 the volume of cloud computing market opportunity would amount to $160bn, including $95bn in business and productivity apps (email, office, CRM, etc.) and $65bn in online advertising.
The authors identify 10 companies + 2 “unconventional plays” with exposure to Cloud Computing growth. I tried to sketch their market position in a diagram (my own interpretation):
Top 10 (+2) Cloud companies
It is interesting that Merrill Lynch researchers added Activision to their top cloud company list. They are absolutely correct, though. If you manage to operate a 10 million WoW gamer user base in a distributed network, you definitely deserve to be in the champions league.
I will pick up other interesting aspects of the note in later blog posts. Comments, ideas?
July 5, 2008 at 4:48 pm |
[Quickie republishing request]
Markus would you be cool with our republishing this excellent post in full, with your byline and bio obviously (plus a link back to the original URL) at http://virtualization.sys-con.com/?
http://web2journal.com/read/604936.htm
http://markusklems.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/merill-in-the-cloud/
We try and do this from time to time with insightful blog posts by writers outside our immediate circle so as to introduce fresh new voices to our audience (and vice versa!)
Let us know, yes? Thank u sir…meantime have a great holiday weekend!
Jeremy G.
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Jeremy Geelan
Sr. Vice-President, Editorial & Events
SYS-CON Media
July 5, 2008 at 4:56 pm |
Jeremy,
that’s fine with me. Thank you for your interest in my blog.
Markus
July 7, 2008 at 12:53 pm |
Merrill might be confusing “Cloud” with IT Infrastructure. Saying 100+ billion for IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and Internal cloud is really just saying IT Infrastructure minus the hardware. see …
Do we need a cloud standard or just one good old IT management standard?
July 7, 2008 at 2:36 pm |
The calculation comes from the assumption that by 2011 about 12% of the software market ($95bn) goes to the cloud. $65bn is the expected size of the online ad market in 2011 (today ~$37bn). Well, I agree, the assumptions are not very clear.
July 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm |
[...] was reading a recent post about the Merrill Lynch’s research note titled “The Cloud Wars: $100+ billion at stake” [...]
July 9, 2008 at 5:41 pm |
the concept of the “cloud” i.e. SAAS, ASP etc has been around a long long time…..Telecom services are in effect cloud computing.
July 9, 2008 at 5:49 pm |
That’s true, but now the elastic infrastructure (cloud) is accessible to every developer. I guess the cloud should have an API to be a cloud (see http://www.johnmwillis.com/cloud-computing/does-a-cloud-have-to-have-an-api-to-be-a-cloud/)
July 9, 2008 at 5:53 pm |
What an unfortunate name “Cloud Computing” – try selling a Pie in the Sky to an IT executive who wants to solve a pain today.
Its interesting that Merill’s report could equally be applied to Utility Computing or Grid Computing or any such other failed initiatives. The article had none other than Nicholas Carr to justify Cloud Computing – I thought the guy say IT doesn’t matter.
I think the concepts are interesting and useful, packaging and positioning sucks for Cloud Computing. We need a better name,,,,
July 17, 2008 at 11:36 am |
Markus…I found value in this post…Where can i get the full Meriil report..
July 17, 2008 at 6:24 pm |
A friend sent me the PDF. Sorry, I have no link.
August 31, 2008 at 7:13 am |
[...] market is hot. The technologies are appearing fast and furious. The tools you need are out there, but they are [...]