Private cloud will grow to $26 bn in 2022: Report

Even though companies are fast embracing public and private cloud solutions, the market for private cloud environment will grow to $26 billion in 2022 — up from $15.9 billion in 2017 implying a 10.3 per cent compound annual growth rate, a new report said on Wednesday.

According to market research firm Forrester, despite the recent interest in using public cloud platforms to host legacy applications, private cloud deployments are still a priority.

"While 59 per cent of global infrastructure decision-makers rated building an internal private cloud operated by IT as a critical or high infrastructure priority, 61 per cent rated hosted private cloud as a critical or high priority," the report said.

When it comes to software, commercial software is a top choice for internal private cloud.

Sometimes, companies leverage multiple private cloud solutions or open source software as part of or in lieu of a commercial offering.

Forrester said that use of open source as part of a private cloud solution is increasing.

"In 2016, 42 per cent of global infrastructure decision makers' internal private cloud platform was custom-built using open source software, up from 39 per cent in 2015," the report said.

Private cloud software suites also face challenges. They are expensive and not all enterprises can spend over $1 million for a 1,000 virtual machine (VM) environment, said the report.

In addition to the cost, private cloud software suites require technical expertise that's often lacking at a typical enterprise.

Forrester said that these challenges would dampen adoption of private cloud software suites, especially as budgets shift toward development tools and training, and expects private cloud software suites to grow six per cent annually over the forecast period.