Gartner Expects Cloud Services Brokerage to Be $150BN by 2013
Gartner believes that cloud service brokerages will become a common place service. This brokerage is necessary because as cloud computing expands; it will become more complex. Brokerages will help users to combine and manage the different areas of service. The main function of these brokerages will be to manage the cloud service customer-service provider relationship. Locations of where the brokerages can be found will either be at the cloud’s service provider or end-user’s location or within the cloud as a service.
L. Frank Kenney, the analyst from Gartner state that intermediaries will play an important role in making cloud computing popular by connecting the two parties – provider of cloud computing service and users of this service. The role of such intermediary can be played not only by human beings but also by a piece of software, hardware elements, a platform and a group of technologies which adds to the basic service provided by cloud computing. These additions can be providing a way to manage these services, make cloud services more secured or giving rise to a wholly new service.
Gartner outlined three categories of opportunities for cloud brokers:
- Cloud Service Intermediation Brokers: Building services atop an existing cloud platform, such as additional security or management capabilities.
- Aggregation Brokers: Deploying customer services over multiple cloud platforms.
- Cloud Service Arbitrage: Brokers supply flexibility and "opportunistic choices" – and foster competition between clouds.
Cloud service providers must begin to partner with cloud brokerages to ensure that they can deliver the services they promote.
Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer said in a statement that What sits between you and the cloud will become a critical success factor in cloud computing. Cloud services are expected to grow more rapidly than consumers’ ability to manage the cloud. Service brokers will make it easier for consumers to trust and properly employ cloud services. These brokers and cloud service providers will need to cooperate to ensure that users get the services that have been advertised. The total of all global cloud service revenue in 2008 was $46.4 billion, which is projected to rise to $56.3 billion in 2009 and to $150 billion by 2013.
