The rise of cloud computing will revolutionise the business world despite widespread uncertainty over the precise meaning of the term, says analyst Gartner.

The analyst firm defines the concept as when massively-scaleable IT tools are delivered as a service to multiple customers over the internet. Gartner notes that while several terms for this kind of arrangement have arisen in recent years, including "utility computing" and "software as a service", none have been so widely used that they became a standardised term.

Yet the use of these services is increasingly rapidly, and their impact could eventually eclipse the effect that e-business has had on the world's organisations.

“The focus has moved up from the infrastructure implementations and onto the services that allow for access to the capabilities provided,” said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow.

“Although many companies will argue how the cloud services are implemented, the ultimate measure of success will be how the services are consumed and whether that leads to new business opportunities.”