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These points are signiicant beyond any speciic test of their accuracy
because, whether or not the report accurately predicts the industry's future,
it succeeds unambiguously in advancing the promotional discourse. In
addition to providing a singular form of legitimacy for the cloud, the
report's inluence is multiplied when, as is almost inevitably the case, it is
highlighted in newsletters, blogs, and other promotional literature. In this
case, blogs, including Software Strategies Research (Columbus 2012a) and
The Storage Effect , a blog produced by the storage manufacturer Seagate
(Wojtakiak 2012), and a research report (Dalwadi 2012) are among the
numerous examples. The result is a circle of afirmation where reports with
legitimacy get referenced, ampliied, and reconstituted by other points
in what amounts to a global chain of discursive production. In this case,
the product is a narrative promoting the inevitable growth of the cloud
computing industry.
Forrester Research, which describes itself as a research and advisory
company, is another excellent example of a irm that uses its legitimacy
to advance the promotional culture around the cloud. The company,
which focuses on providing proprietary research to the IT industry, has
given considerable attention to cloud computing, including in a 2011
report called “Sizing the Cloud.” Forrester uses the report to restate the
growth mantra by predicting that the market for the cloud will expand
from under $41 billion in 2010 to over $240 billion in 2020. While the
report itself requires a budget beyond that of most readers ($2,495 a
copy), growth appears to be a key theme (Reid and Kisker 2011). Like the
Deloitte report, this one has been picked up by bloggers who single out
the growth theme and see it as part of the general view among experts:
“Thus, the “Sizing the Cloud” report supports a common view among
analysts that the cloud computing market will witness tremendous growth
in the foreseeable future. The market will grow six times within a decade,
according to Forrester, which is typical only for new and relatively under-
developed markets” (Kirilov 2011). Forrester reiterated this view at the end
of 2011, when one of its researchers used a blog to make this prediction
for 2012: “All cloud markets will continue to grow, and the total cloud
market (including private, virtual private, and public cloud markets) will
reach about $61 billion by the end of 2012. By far, the largest individual
cloud market continues to be the public SaaS market, which will hit $33
billion by the end of 2012” (ibid.). As with other such reports, there is
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