Cloud communications continue to be touted as a low cost means to managing all interaction channels, but does this technology platform offer enough to capture the attention of companies everywhere to continue to push demand in the future? According to ShoreTel (News - Alert), the popularity of cloud communications will be motivation enough.

This recent ShoreTel post suggests that industry reports already point to the success cloud communications as a technology platform has had in the market. Further, U.S. companies are more readily adopting cloud solutions, as they can be more easily scaled to fit the needs of the business, deliver flexibility, are simpler to use and better enhance communication and streamline collaboration efforts.

A growing demand in enterprise mobility is also helping drive the need for cloud communications, given the capabilities the latter enables the former. Communications enabled in the cloud extend business VoIP features out to employees on any device that are working in any location – an obvious plus.

Even more, International Data Corporation recently completed a study that found that public IT cloud services in the United States are projected to rise to $43.2 billion. The revenue, which totaled to just $1.5 billion in 2011, suggests the cloud communications sector is slated to grow at a compound annual rate of 18.5 percent.

The main adopters of cloud communications will be companies operating in manufacturing and resources, financial services, infrastructure services, the public sector, services and distribution, consumer sectors and home businesses. Additionally, more than 50 percent of all cloud spending in 2011 was concentrated in process manufacturing, discrete manufacturing and professional services.

According to the IT Jungle, the fastest growing sector in cloud communications last year was infrastructure, representing just over 12 percent of all cloud solutions spending for that year. Analysts with IDC (News - Alert) project these same services will account for 12.9 percent of all spending on cloud services by 2016.

Widespread use of the cloud and subsequent cloud services appears in education, media, communications and construction. IDC’s Eileen Smith, program manager for the company’s Global Technology (News - Alert) and Industry Research Organization, suggests that media companies will continue as the primary users of cloud services, enabling continuous services for customer offerings considered to be content-heavy.

Revenues for enterprise cloud applications are also expected to enjoy strong growth, with IDC projecting figures to reach $67.3 billion by 2016, with growth at 24 percent each year.

As companies throughout various industries learn how much more they can accomplish with cloud communications over traditional deployment levels, we’re likely to continue to see strong growth and numerous opportunities introduced in the market as we move into 2013.

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