This Chart From IBM Explains Why Cloud Computing Is Such A Game-Changer

All of the industry's biggest tech players are going gaga chasing the cloud-computing market these days:

• Cisco just vowed to spend $1 billion to build a new cloud to compete with Amazon's Web Services.
• Microsoft spent about $8 billion on cloud computing R&D in 2011 and spends billions more each year on its cloud data centers in 16 regions around the world.
• IBM is spending $7 billion to beef up its cloud.
• Oracle is in the process of building a cloud, too, with parts of it already being used by beta testers, CEO Larry Ellison recently said.

What is it that has all of the biggest tech players drooling? This chart that IBM sent to its investors explains it all. To summarize, IBM says ...

• 85% of new software today is being built for the cloud.
• One-quarter of the world's apps will be available on the cloud by 2016.
• Almost three-quarters of developers say that they are using the cloud in apps they are developing now.

In other words, the shift from buying computers to renting them has begun big time, and there are billions of dollars up for grabs.

By 2017, enterprises are expected to be spending $235 billion on the cloud, predicts market research firm IHS.