By YOUNG MONEY Staff
5 August 2011

The Los Angeles Times reports that many investors are uncertain about the prospects of cloud computing.

New technologies have always been one of the key areas for investing, and cloud computing has emerged as one of the most important technological trends. Last year the industry took in around $41 billion, but over the current decade that number is expected to grow nearly 600 percent to $241 billion.

"Cloud computing lets a company build scale very quickly without a lot of capital investment and maintenance costs, because you don't need an entire information technology department," Ryan Issakaines, a strategist with First Trust Advisors, told The Times. This offers the industry a strong client base among smaller companies.

The larger clients with the most resources, however, have some of the strongest concerns with the technology, worrying about putting responsibility for data security in the hands of an outside company.

CNET reports that these concerns have led many large companies to favor private clouds, bypassing the new crop of technology companies that have seemed like such a promising investment possibility. Several experts suggested to Bloomberg that one key in the coming years will be studying a range of options without necessarily locking into one kind of service.