http://pictures.directnews.co.uk/liveimages/Floppy+disk_1071_19009000_0_0_14863_100.jpg

A large number of changes are required for cloud computing to become a commercial IT effort, it is said.

Gartner, an information technology research and advisory body, claims it will be several years of shifts in the industry before cloud computing, or service-enabled application platforms, become a mainstream reality.

It asserts that "technologically aggressive application development organisations should look to cloud computing for tactical projects through 2011".

Gartner believes that during this time the market will progress when a group of vendors will dominate the cloud computing sector and a period of consolidation will follow that will run until 2013.

From 2012 to 2015 the industry will experience "mainstream critical mass and commoditisation", according to Mark Driver, vice-president of research at Gartner.

By 2015, cloud computing will be the selected "solution for many application development projects", Gartner predicts.

It is situated in Stamford, Connecticut and has 1,200 research analysts and consultants across the world.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).