IDC market analysis: IT spend on cloud services to grow to $42 billion / 25% of spend by 2012

More predictions:

"IDC expects spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold, reaching $42 billion (triple what it is now) by 2012 and accounting for 9% of revenues in five key market segments. More importantly, spending on cloud computing will accelerate throughout the forecast period, capturing 25% of IT spending growth in 2012 and nearly a third of growth the following year."

Read the IDC press release and follow the links here.

Also worth noting, the press release includes IDC's definitions of Cloud services vs. Cloud computing:

• Cloud Services are the consumer and business products, services, and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real time over the Internet. (IDC identifies eight key attributes that more clearly define the new generation of commercial cloud services.)
  
  
• Cloud Computing is an emerging IT development, deployment, and delivery model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services, and solutions over the Internet.