Business Cloud Computing Growing Rapidly: In-Stat

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Business is moving to the cloud, according to research firm In-Stat, and that means new opportunities for service providers. While enterprises are moving more data and services to central data centers, more small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are relying on service providers to provide hosted services.

These trends are driven by the cost savings that consolidation makes possible. SMBs are turning to hosted Centrex service, and enterprises are moving PBX capability and SIP trunking, a VoIP solution based on SIP protocol, to the data center. To support less infrastructure on-site, branch offices and SMBs are consolidating multiple services into multiservice business gateways (MSBGs); In-Stat forecasts MSBG revenues in the SMB market will exceed $1 billion in 2015.

“The health of the MSBG market is closely linked to the health of the worldwide economy,” says Norm Bogen, In-Stat's VP of research. “Economic growth leads to the establishment of new businesses and branch offices, driving demand for MSBGs. The pace of new branch offices worldwide is expected to slow over the next five years, but this will be offset by acceleration in the establishment of small businesses. As the economy recovers, small businesses will flourish, and new technology, including MSBGs, will enable small firms to be more competitive with larger firms.”

In-Stat's research findings include the following:

Worldwide annual shipments of MSBGs will approach 1.8 million units by 2015.

Cisco has gained an overwhelming share of the MSBG market.

Nearly all MSBGs marketed for enterprise branch office applications will need to offer some form of unified communications functionality.

Revenues generated from MSBG sales are expected to grow at a lower rate than unit shipments.