The emergence of the public cloud will help drive down costs in the private equivalent, one IT outsourcing expert has claimed.

David Bradshaw, European Software-as-a-Service and cloud services research manager at IDC, said private cloud providers have no choice but to refine their offering if they wish to remain competitive in the current market.

He claimed that such on-demand solutions need simplifying in order to counter the direct competition, as this will enable service charges to fall.

“One of the things that has traditionally happened to enterprise on-premise operators is [that] it’s been very costly and complex to implement and get going,” Mr Bradshaw stated.

He urged cloud computing providers to focus on developing technologies which are much simpler to deploy and use.

Last week, Abi Stevens, from UK online centres, alluded to the benefits of IT support providers in London when he described the internet as being increasingly vital to modern life.