A new survey by CA Technologies revealed that North American businesses are choosing the private cloud over its public counterpart. While approximately 32 percent of companies are using the public cloud, more than half of respondents said they opted to use a privately hosted infrastructure.

The study also found that the majority of cloud service providers expect the increased Software, Platform and Infrastructure as a Service investments will help them grow their business by 30 percent in 2012.

"Cloud service providers are critical players in the cloud computing ecosystem and important drivers in this new cloud economy," CA Technologies executive Adam Famularo said. "Third party providers come from a range of backgrounds - managed services, software development, value-added resellers, even IT consulting and technology outsourcing - and they're leveraging the cloud to transform their businesses and those of their end customers."

As cloud spending increases, service providers will be given more opportunity to expand business operations and reach new clients. On average, companies will increase their cloud budgets by 16 percent for 2012, according to another report by IDG Enterprise.

While the cloud computing market is still maturing, the industry offers potential for the private sector and cloud vendors alike.