Global market intelligence firm IDC issued a report predicting personal and mobile cloud use will grow out of their current proportions, and collide into mainstream IT.  The report also predicts a 5.7% increase  in global IT spending and a 500+ percent growth in the cloud in 2011, among other things.

“What really distinguishes the year ahead is that these disruptive technologies are finally being integrated with each other – cloud with mobile, mobile with social networking, social networking with ‘big data’ and real-time analytics,” added [Frank]Gens.

“As a result, these once-emerging technologies can no longer be invested in, or managed, as sandbox efforts around the edges of the market. Instead, they are rapidly becoming the market itself and must be addressed accordingly.”

The private cloud is yet another area expected to significantly grow with the evolution of infrastructure, empowering the big picture even further.

25 billion apps are expected to be downloaded in 2011 compared to just 10 billion this year, as the Smartphone and tablets industry is also expected to grow, outnumbering the amount of PC shipments globally within the next 18 months. This along with a prediction of the social business software segment to grow by 38% by 2014 contribute to an ever-broadening positive outlook for the cloud, truly proving itself – at least according to the report – as a serious game changer to reckon with, especially in the mobile and personal sector.