Cloud computing has a greater potential for employment growth than the internet did in its early years, according to a new study sponsored by SAP.
San Hill Group, which conducted the study, said cloud is already generating a sizable number of jobs in the USA today and that its research shows it has the potential to create very large business opportunities and thousands of new jobs.
The study found 11 cloud computing companies added 80,000 jobs in the U.S. in 2010, and that the employment rate at these organisations was almost five times than that of the high-tech sector overall.
It projects companies selling cloud services to grow revenues by an average of $20 billion per year for the next five years, which has the potential to generate up to 472,000 jobs in the States and abroad in that time.
Venture capital investments in cloud opportunities are projected to be $30 billion in the next five years, which could add another 213,000 jobs, whilst the economic impact for companies buying cloud services could be even more significant. It could save them up to $625 billion over five years, much of which could be reinvested to create further jobs.
The study, titled “Job Growth in the Forecast: How Cloud Computing is Generating New Business Opportunities and Fueling Job Growth in the United States,” looked at several ways cloud computing may create jobs and found specifically:
“The study confirms that cloud computing can have a significant impact at every key growth stage of the business lifecycle – from launching a startup to expanding a business to managing a multi-national enterprise. Business growth leads to jobs, and cloud computing will accelerate this in certain industries,” said Jacqueline Vanacek, VP and cloud computing evangelist at SAP.
The study pointed to three industry megatrends propelling the growth of cloud services and employment: the boom in mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablets; the social trend in online services; and the growth of big data flows that require more data management services.
“These results support what many in the cloud community have long suspected. The impending growth of mobile computing, social networking and data management all have one thing in common — the cloud — which is why job growth in this area cannot be ignored,” said M.R. Rangaswami, study author and co-founder of Sand Hill Group.
