41 percent of all enterprise communications app users worldwide to migrate to cloud by 2016

NEW YORK, USA: In the rapidly evolving enterprise communications market, CPE vendors confront imminent erosion in their installed base as cloud services gain traction across the public, private, and hybrid cloud domains. By 2016, 41 percent of all enterprise communications users, or 386 million lines/seats, will be on virtual infrastructure, posing a serious danger to the CPE market.

“For CPE vendors, the cloud threat is real,” says senior analyst Subha Rama. “By 2016, the communications CPE market will only grow 4.3 41 percent, while cloud communications will grow by over 21 41 percent, reaching $8 billion in revenues.”

Smaller vendors with point solutions will see cloud services rapidly displace their installed bases. Large vendors are becoming cloud providers or key enablers as well. However, many of the CPE solutions are simply not cloud ready and will see performance downgrades when virtualized.

There are three prominent forces influencing cloud migration:
* The growing adoption of data center architectures and virtualization technologies.
* The need to integrate multiple applications to deliver the connected experience to users across different devices, including smartphones and media tablets.
* The promise of lower costs and increased efficiencies from standardized platforms and processes in the cloud.

Enterprises are adopting a non-linear approach to cloud migration; while certain applications undergo experimentation, others are retained on premises. Mixed environments and hybridization are becoming the norm, especially with larger enterprises. However, the technology to manage hybrid clouds and to enable seamless movement of applications instances across different vendor clouds is in its infancy.

“Enterprise mobilization is also driving migration to the cloud,” says practice director Dan Shey. “Cloud applications ease application delivery for businesses that are increasingly relying on access across fixed and mobile endpoints.”