The rise of cloud computing continues as more and more companies invest in their enterprise IT capabilities to enable innovation at scale. But just in case you believe that the cloud — like the Internet — is just a passing fad, here’s some data to convince you otherwise:

• According to 451 Research, spending on cloud computing infrastructure is projected to grow at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2018, compared to only 5 percent growth for overall enterprise IT.
• According to Goldman Sachs, cloud models like Infrastructure‐as‐a‐Service (IaaS) and Platform‐as‐a‐ Service (PaaS) will double in corporate IT spend percentage by 2018.
• According to Forbes, 93 percent of organizations surveyed are already running applications or experimenting with IaaS, thereby spurring investments in private cloud computing.