A recently released study by research company MarketsandMarkets predicts the market for cloud-based business analytics will grow from $5.25 billion this year to $16.52 billion in 2018, an annual growth rate of more than 25 percent.

That growth is largely fueled, the study says, by improvements in cloud computing technology and a growing demand for more cost-effective business intelligence.

Cloud analytics is the move from traditional in-house business intelligence (BI) to a remote service delivered over an Internet-based network. Cloud analytics can help businesses get more cost-effective BI because they do not need to invest heavily in in-house IT expertise and infrastructure. Cloud BI uses a pay-as-you-go model that allows businesses to pay for only the services they need to conduct their business analytics rather than having to install expensive hardware and software. It uses what is called the software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing model that allows businesses to use the software for a certain amount of service based on its specific needs.

Cloud analytics is fulfilling an important need at a time when businesses are struggling to support their own business analytics. According to MarketsandMarkets, “Enterprises are struggling with high operating cost, lack of IT expertise and increasing employee mobility.”

Many recent reports have commented on the lack of available IT talent in this space; cloud computing requires specialists to be familiar with various on-demand services, including software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), which are essential for supporting operations on the cloud.

Because of the rarity of cloud-based skills, the job market looks extremely strong for those trained in cloud analytics. According to a report called “Climate Change: Cloud’s Impact on IT Organizations and Staffing,” sponsored by Microsoft and written by IDC, the demand for “cloud-ready” workers will grow by 26 percent, to 7 million, by 2015. But these companies are already strapped for talent to fill the available jobs.

Hiring managers report that they failed to fill an existing 1.7 million open cloud-related positions last year, simply because they couldn’t find employees with the right skills. The report calls the need “urgent,” saying existing IT professionals should get re-training help, and students should be encouraged to pursue cloud-related IT training.

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