Cloud services present an emerging revenue opportunity for hosting providers, according to a recent study from Interxion Holding NV. The survey reveals that 57% of European respondents expect 40-100% of their revenue to come from cloud services in 2015, representing a 28% increase from 2012. The survey polled more than 400 European and U.S. service providers. 

Interestingly, the survey reveals that European service providers don't consider large, international providers as their main competitors. Instead, 74% of respondents consider local players as the main competition, with only 13% viewing U.S. competitors as the main competition. Of those 13%, 48% mention Amazon as the primary U.S. competitor.

The survey also uncovered how hosting providers are capitalizing on the cloud opportunity. 61% of European respondents reported driving cloud revenue by adopting three or more strategies, including: building a cloud infrastructure (65%), increasing focus on service excellence (61%) and expanding into other countries (52%). Interxion’s recent whitepaper The Evolution of the European Cloud Market addresses this challenge and outlines best practices that lead to greater success in the cloud for European hosting and cloud providers. 

“Given our 10+ years’ track record housing and working with hosters across Europe, we felt Interxion was in a prime position to leverage our neutrality to create independent research about the European hosting market, and the results are compelling,” said Jelle Frank van der Zwet, Segment Marketing Manager, Cloud, at Interxion. “Between now and 2015, the number of hosting providers expecting the majority of their revenue to come from cloud services will grow by 17%. This presents a significant opportunity for them to leverage their experience in managing infrastructure and local customer approach to grow their business. It’s exciting for us to see this transformation and help service providers continue to differentiate themselves.”

Interxion will reveal the results of its survey through a series of infographics. The first infographic is now available on Interxion's blog. Check back each week for the newest infographic in the series.