London, 27 January 2009 A new report from consulting firm BroadGroup predicts that Enterprises are more likely to adopt Cloud Computing services as the recession bites.

Enterprises now more than ever desperate to seize on technologies that will accelerate service delivery, reduce costs and offer competitive advantage are already turning to assess Cloud strategies. The cost arguments for moving to the Cloud are becoming more measurable and concrete; big-iron providers of IT products and services are beginning to identify Cloud as a priority and the surge in consumer adoption of Cloud Computing through the use of Yahoo! Mail, Flickr or Google Docs, even though they may not be aware they are doing so, collectively demonstrate new data points and the progress of Cloud so far.

Cloud Computing is the ultimate recession technology. For companies doing development, it cuts costs while also making it possible to bring new products and services to market quickly. For companies that are considering deploying enterprise software, it can offer potential savings of up to 25% of the total cost. And for Internet service providers and data centres, cloud raises the prospect of both huge new markets and also significant new competitors.

That cloud computing is not a single market is reflected in the complex player segmentation which the report describes with profiles and an analysis of their current competitive positioning. Although players focus on infrastructure, platform, services and applications, other niches exist, and some players occupy positions in several segments.

The report suggests that this will continue to change as new players emerge and product developments underway such as VMWare s Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS) for example are deployed. Much therefore remains to be played out but in the meantime Google App for example and Amazon Web Services are standout products.

Cloud players will compete for customer base directly with established telco, data centre, ISPs, web hosters and software vendors yet such is the versatility of the technology that each could themselves adopt a cloud strategy whether as a passive investment, or as an active player. But only for a time. The development of cloud markets will be impacted by the global recession, but this report suggests that the timely breathing space this may represent will be short lived and understanding cloud now is a prerequisite for every Enterprise in exactly the same way that Internet websites should have been perceived at the outset.

This report provides the perfect primer to CEOs and CTOs who are looking for an overview of the opportunities and risks that cloud represents for their organizations. At a time when executives everywhere are under pressure from day-to-day concerns, it is all too easy to miss business opportunities and long-term risks. This report could be the best investment you make in 2009.

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