Cloud computing has a greater potential for employment growth than the Internet did in its early years and it can create hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to a new study.

Cloud computing is already generating a sizable number of jobs in the US today, said the study by Sand Hill Group, sponsored by SAP America.

Based on numerous trends and indicators, it has the future potential to create very large business opportunities and new jobs in the US, it said.

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:
• Eleven cloud computing companies added 80,000 jobs in the US in 2010, and the employment growth rate at these organizations was almost five times than that of the high-tech sector overall.
• Companies selling cloud services are projected to grow revenues by an average of $20 billion per year for the next five years, which has the potential to generate as many as 472,000 jobs in the US and abroad in the next five years.
• Venture capital investments in cloud opportunities are projected to be $30 billion in the next five years, which could add another 213,000 new jobs in the US.
• The economic impact for companies buying cloud services can be even more significant. Cloud computing could save US businesses as much as $625 billion over five years, much of which could be reinvested to create new business opportunities and additional jobs.

The study says three industry megatrends are 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. Government policies and purchasing decisions at all levels will also have a major influence on cloud adoption and job growth, it said.

“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,” said Jacqueline Vanacek, vice president and cloud computing evangelist at SAP. “Business growth leads to jobs, and cloud computing will accelerate this in certain industries.”

“These results support what many in the cloud community have long suspected,” said M R Rangaswami, study author and co-founder of Sand Hill Group, a strategic advisory firm known for its insight into the software and services market.
“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.” – TradeArabia News Service