Microsoft-commissioned IDC study says cloud computing will create 14 million new jobs by 2015

The future for cloud service providers is very bright, at least if a new report (PDF) from research firm IDC is to be believed.

Commissioned by software giant Microsoft (which obviously also offers a range of cloud solutions), the study claims spending on public and private IT cloud services will generate nearly 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015.

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IDC also found that “IT innovation created by cloud computing” could produce $1.1 trillion a year in new revenues, although this forecast is about as vague as they come. But hey, there’s a ‘trillion’ in there folks!

According to IDC/Microsoft, shifting to cloud services could cut costs for companies and help create 1.2 million jobs by the end of 2015 in North America alone. To give you some perspective: the United States added a grand total of 1.8 million new jobs in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (as pointed out on Boston.com).

More than 50 percent of those 14 million new jobs by 2015 will accrue to small and medium-sized businesses, IDC says.

The research firm also points out that most new jobs created as a result of the growth of the cloud computing industry as a whole will be generated in emerging markets. India and China, in particular, are expected to produce nearly 6.8 million “cloud-enabled jobs” between 2011 and 2015, something that IDC asserts can partly be attributed to the relative size of their workforces.