In the latest evidence that Latin America is fast becoming a worldwide force in the global economy, the cloud computing market is growing by leaps and bounds - and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,based on the results of a recent report.

In Latin American countries - specifically Brazil, Argentina and Mexico - cloud computing is in the midst of a growth spurt, with a high number of telecommunications businesses entering the market, according to RnR Research. So much so, the cloud computing industry is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of more than 26 percent by 2018.

In addition to more telecommunications companies operating out of Latin America, another reason for the development of cloud computing stems from more small and medium enterprises using the technology in their firms, RnR Research revealed. Businesses have turned to cloud computing, realizing that it benefits both consumers as well as how efficiently the company operates.

Services are rendered through the cloud computing process through one of three models, those being either software as a service, platform as a service or infrastructure as a service, the RnR Research report stated. With the first, SaaS, software is made available to for use through the Internet. PaaS is similar, only it concerns the delivery and deployment of platforms for development. IaaS is more broad, in that it describes the utilization of infrastructure from a standpoint of information technology.

What's helped cloud computing become a success?
Though at one time cloud computing was something of a novelty, thus fairly young in development as far as what the service could provide to business and consumers in general, there have been several "critical success factors" for the growth of hybrid cloud computing, according to Gartner. For instance, internal private cloud computing helps to maximize how entities handle their assets, both internal and external. Cost efficiency is also easier with hybrid cloud computing, evidenced through competition and capital expenditure.

Other benefits of cloud computing include improving a company's resilience to IT errors or disaster recovery issues and enhancing functionality.

Latin America regulations have in effect created the need for the hybrid cloud. That's because governments in most of these countries not only mandate e-invoicing, which is more easily taken care of through the economies of scale offered by hybrid cloud services. In fact, utilizing this delivery model is a lot cheaper than utilizing on premise applications, which at one time was the only solution option available.