Server revenue from the public cloud category will grow from 2009 figures of $582 million to $718 million in 2014, says IDC. This is the IT researcher's first-ever cloud computing survey that focuses on servers, and IDC says that server revenues generated as a result of the private cloud market is expected to grow from $7.3 billion to $11.8 billion within the same period.  This is about 62 percent, or significantly more than the 29 percent growth of the public cloud.

Public cloud services are essentially services accessible to everyone who are willing to pay, and includes Amazon's EC2 and Google Apps. Private clouds, on the other hand, are those deployed or hosted entirely within the company firewall to serve internal entities or business partners.

Are there any difference between virtualization and private clouds? For one, the servers covered in this study are simpler--and cheaper, in nature. Virtualization tends to employ the use of highly-sophisticated and powerful servers to run more virtual machines at the same time. As IDC research analyst Katherine Broderick puts it, "It's more about volume than value in the cloud space."

Interestingly, about 44 percent of respondents are considering the deployment of private clouds within their IT systems; IT decision makers appear to favor private clouds, for now.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek 

Related Articles:
Reasons to talk to your lawyer before jumping into the cloud
The cloud and its discontents
Amazon unveils new high-memory instance for EC2
CA buys cloud platform provider 3Tera
Is cloud computing right for your business?