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1. Cisco Global Cloud Index, 2012-2017
by Kellie Wong Oct 23, 2013
The third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2012-2017) was recently released,
forecasting growth of global data center and cloud-based IP traffic. You can view and
download the entire Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2012-2017
White Paper, where it covers the full details from the study and the methodology behind
the Cisco Global Cloud index. This blog post is to quickly share an Overview of some of
the key takeaways and highlights from the white paper.
Forecast Overview
Global data center traffic:
● Annual global data center IP traffic will reach 7.7 zettabytes by the end of 2017. By
2017, global data center IP traffic will reach 644 exabytes per month (up from 214
exabytes per month in 2012).
● Global data center IP traffic will nearly triple over the next 5 years. Overall, data
center IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent from
2012 to 2017.
Data center virtualization and cloud computing transition:
● The ratio of workloads to non-virtualized traditional servers will increase from 1.7 in
2012 to 2.3 by 2017.
● The ratio of workloads to non-virtualized cloud servers will increase from 6.5 in 2012
to 16.7 by 2017.
● By 2017, nearly two-thirds of all workloads will be processed in the cloud.
Global cloud traffic:
● Annual global cloud IP traffic will reach 5.3 zettabytes by the end of 2017. By 2017,
global cloud IP traffic
will reach 443 exabytes per month (up from 98 exabytes per month in 2012).
● Global cloud IP traffic will increase nearly 4.5-fold over the next 5 years. Overall,
cloud IP traffic will grow
at a CAGR of 35 percent from 2012 to 2017.
● Global cloud IP traffic will account for more than two-thirds of total data center traffic
by 2017.
Top Five Data Center and Cloud Networking Trends
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1. Growth of Global Data Center Relevance and Traffic
Global Data Center IP traffic will have a three-fold increase by 2017.
Global cloud traffic crossed the zettabyte threshold in 2012, and by 2017, over twothirds of all data center traffic will be based in the cloud. Cloud traffic will represent 69
percent of total data center traffic by 2017.
The portion of traffic residing within the data center will remain the majority throughout
the forecast period, accounting for 76 percent of data center traffic in both 2012 and
2017.

2. Above: Summarizes the forecast for data center IP traffic growth from 2012 to 2017.
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2. Continued Global Data Center Virtualization
The Cisco Global Cloud Index forecasts the continued transition of workloads from
traditional data centers to cloud data centers. By 2017, nearly two-thirds of all workloads
will be processed in cloud data centers
Growth of workloads in cloud data centers is expected to be five times the growth in
traditional workloads between2012 and 2017.
The ratio of workloads to non-virtualized cloud servers will grow from 6.5 in 2012 to
nearly 16.7 by 2017. In comparison, the ratio of workloads to non-virtualized traditional
data center servers will grow from 1.7 in 2012 to 2.3 in 2017.
Above: Workload Distribution: 2012-2017
3. Remote Data Services and Storage Access Services Growth

3. 
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There is a growth of cloud services, such as personal content lockers and enterprise
remote data storage and access services.
Cisco GCI forecasts that personal cloud traffic will increase from 1.7 EB annually in
2012 to 20 EB in 2017, at a CAGR of 63 percent
Above: Personal Content Locker Traffic Growth
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4. Internet of Everything (IoE) and IPv6 Adoption Foster Cloud Traffic Growth
There is the projected expansion of multiple device usage at a regional level from
2012 to 2017. In 2012, North America led in average fixed devices per user, while
Central and Eastern Europe led in average mobile devices per user. By 2017, North
America is expected to lead both in average fixed devices per user, as well as average
mobile devices per user. All the regions continue to show growth in both mobile
and fixed average devices per user.
Above: Multiple Devices Proliferation by 2017

4. 
5. Global Cloud Readiness
Download and upload speeds as well as latencies are essential measures to assess
network capabilities for cloudreadiness. The figure below provides the sample business
and consumer cloud service categories and the corresponding network requirements
used for the Cisco Global Cloud Index study. Note that the concurrent use of
applications can further influence the user experience and cloud accessibility.
Above: Sample Business and Consumer Cloud Service Categories
You can discover more details on each trend and access more data in the full white
paper: Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2012-2017 White Paper
More Information
http://www.cisco.com/go/cloudindex
Note: All images used in this blog post are taken from the Cisco Global Cloud Index:
Forecast and Methodology, 2012-2017 White Paper
For more discussions and topics around Service Providers, please visit our SP Community:
http://cs.co/spcommunity