It’s time for hosting providers to jump into the cloud computing business. Gartner estimates that the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market grew 45% in 2012 alone. Platform as a service is also a fast growing segment, representing a $1.2 billion opportunity in 2012.

Traditionally, hosting providers have focused on managed hosting and co-location services, with a more recent move to virtual private servers, in an attempt to capitalise on the virtualisation trend that has transformed the market in recent years. But customers are increasingly aware of the benefits of cloud computing, and those service providers that respond to their needs are likely to reap significant rewards.

Service providers have been forced to reconsider their strategies, as dedicated cloud computing services providers like Amazon have captured the market’s attention. Consequently, hosting providers have recently begun offering their own private cloud IaaS services.