The public and private cloud markets continue to experience growth, with the public cloud market expected to reach $100 billion by 2016, according to analysts.

With enterprises continuing to adopt cloud computing, analysts see continued growth in both public and private cloud investment - with worldwide spending on public IT cloud services set to exceed $40 billion in 2012 and reach nearly $100 billion by 2016, according to IDC.

"The IT industry is in the midst of an important transformative period as companies invest in the technologies that will drive growth and innovation over the next two to three decades," Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC, said in a statement. "By the end of the decade, IDC expects at least 80 percent of the industry's growth, and enterprises' highest-value leverage of IT, will be driven by cloud services and the other third-platform technologies."

By 2016, public IT cloud services will account for 16 percent of IT revenue in five key technology categories: applications, system infrastructure software, platform as a service (PaaS), servers and basic storage, IDC said. More significantly, cloud services will generate 41 percent of all growth in these categories by 2016.

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Enterprise Skepticism Remains Despite Cloud Benefits, Growth
Skeptics question cloud computing's value, reliability and security, but users who have taken to the cloud reveal those holding out are missing out, according to an article on SearchCloudComputing.com.

The debate over cloud benefits and challenges shows no signs of letting up, even as cloud computing growth increases in a number of enterprises.

"There are legitimate security and compliance concerns to be sure," said Christopher Wolf, partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP, a law firm based in Washington, D.C. that represents cloud providers and cloud services users. "But most of them are manageable."

IT pros who are converts to cloud argue that there is a significant difference between cloud computing and having an in-house virtual infrastructure.

Skeptics are missing an opportunity to easily scale up and lower costs, said Kris Bliesner, CEO of 2nd Watch, a cloud computing consultancy and systems integrator based in Liberty Lake, Wash.

"[Cloud] agility is creating a different market place for people," he said. "Now if you need a worldwide infrastructure tomorrow, you can have it."

EPA to Move Email to the Cloud by Early 2013
The Environmental Protection Agency will move its nearly 18,000 employees to a cloud-based email and collaboration system by early next year, according to Nextgov.com.

Officials expect the Microsoft-based email and collaboration system to save the agency about $12 million over four years, according to a statement from the EPA.

EPA contracted with Lockheed Martin Corp. to make the transition from its legacy system. The value of the contract is $9.8 million.

The government expects to ultimately save about $5 billion annually by moving about one-fourth of its IT to more nimble cloud computing. Email has been a popular item for agencies to move to the cloud because it presents comparatively low security concerns and cloud storage makes it easier for employees to access email, calendars and collaboration tools from personal computers, smartphones and tablets, according to Nextgov.com.

The General Services Administration, Agriculture Department and a handful of others already have moved their email systems to the cloud. More agencies are in the process of doing so, including the Labor Department.