Australian public cloud to reach $4.4bn by 2016

The Australian public cloud market is forecast to nearly double in value over the next five years to be worth $US4.63 billion ($A4.43 billion) in 2016, according to analyst firm Gartner.

Local spending is expected to reach $2.53 billion this year, the firm said, and would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3 percent over the next five years.

The market is expected to grow at approximately half the speed of India, Indonesia and China, and slightly behind that of the United States.

However, Australia's growth would continue to surpass that of most European countries, many of which would maintain compound growth rates of between nine and 14 percent over the same timeframe.

Australia would also maintain a position of eighth most valuable country in terms of public cloud services.

Part of the reason for variances in growth could be attributed to Gartner labelling Australia a "mature" market for public cloud services, compared to the relative immaturity of emerging markets of India and Indonesia.

Business process as-a-service was forecast to become one of the biggest contributors to public cloud spending globally over the next five years, although this segment included cloud advertising, which by itself accounted for 47 percent of cloud spending last year.