North American companies give cloud the most business

So just where in the world are data center services taking off? In what regions are businesses adopting cloud computing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), or infrastructure utility services (UIS)?

IT market research firm Gartner says interest in data center services is high around the world, but the market structure, dynamics and maturity are quite varied. In North America, hosting (42 percent) and cloud IaaS have achieved the highest level of client adoption, while the markets in the rest of the world are dominated by data center outsourcing (80 percent). The findings are part of the Gartner report "Regional Differences in the Move Toward the Cloud, 2012." The report is available for purchase on Gartner's website here.

Specifically, data center outsourcing in North America was $33 billion in 2011, while Web hosting and colocation were $23 billion. As for cloud, the North American market claims 60 percent of public cloud services worldwide. Gartner points out that although the market for traditional outsourcing services in North America is growing, pace has slowed in part because of IUS solutions and lower-price IT outsourcing (ITO) industrialized models.

In Europe, data center outsourcing was $38 billion in 2011, while Web hosting and co-location were $8.6 billion. Public cloud services adoption was just 22.9 percent.

Data center outsourcing in the Asia region was $10 billion last year, and Web hosting and co-location were $2.5 billion. Public cloud services penetration was 9.8 percent in Japan and 3 percent elsewhere. Japan and South Korea are the most vibrant Web hosting markets for local content, while Singapore and Hong Kong are important regional hubs for multinationals, Gartner points out.

In a prepared statement, Gartner vp and distinguished analyst Claudio Da Rold said the data center services market has been affected by numerous events and that the industry is at a tipping point of either reinvention or decline. "Buyers in enterprise organizations must recognize the common usage patterns and differentiated levels of adoption of hosting vs. data center outsourcing (DCO), as well as the different business and market drivers toward new products," Da Rold said in the statement.

Gartner will present additional information on the outlook for data center technology at the Gartner IT Infrastructure & Operations Management Summit 2012, June 5 to 7 in Orlando, Fla., and June 12 to 13 in Frankfurt, Germany.