IBM, Cisco, Verizon Among 'Prominent' Cloud Managed Services Players

There’s a good reason that many traditional channel partners are adding managed services to their portfolios.

A new study from Grand View Research predicts the cloud managed services market to be valued at $82.5 billion by 2025 — that’s a more-than-healthy 19 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next seven-plus years.

For the purposes of the report, cloud managed services consist of business, network, security, data-center and mobility services — with mobility being the fastest-growing segment as organizations continue to buy more smartphones and tablets for their employees.

Private clouds, driven by the high service levels that these deployments provide, will jump about 16 percent, per year, the study says. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) looking for customization and lower IT costs will adopt cloud managed services at a higher rate than their larger counterparts.

By vertical, health care is poised for the most growth, per Grand View. Hospitals and other health-care facilities are looking to enhance their security, which frequently is mandated by government regulations.

By region, Asia Pacific, led by growing economies in India and China, will see cloud managed services grow at the fastest rate. In North America, the widespread availability of advanced IT infrastructure is expected to drive adoption.

The biggest hindrances to adoption continue to be concerns over data privacy, security and poor connectivity. The cloud, in particular, remains an issue for many businesses that want to keep their data secure — even if that’s overblown. It’s leading to slower adoption among some.

Grand View identifies IBM, Cisco, Ericsson, Verizon and NTT Data Corp. as “prominent [cloud managed services] industry participants.”