A new report from CenturyLink subsidiary Savvis predicts that enterprises will have outsourced 70 percent of their information technology infrastructure by 2018.

Positive cash flow and a shortage of skills in-house are among factors that will prompt the gradual shift to cloud computing, CenturyLink said Thursday.

The “Global IT Trends: IT Outsourcing Fuels Business Growth” report also says 65 percent of IT infrastructure remains on premises.

Savvis predicted colocation as the preferred environment in the next two years, with managed services taking over in five years and cloud obscuring all forms thereafter.

According to Jeff Von Deylen, Savvis president, this comination will be the formula of choice for growing companies transitioning to an outsourced IT climate.

“IT leaders make clear that hybrid approaches to outsourcing guide the way to cloud,” Von Deylen said.

“As organizations turn to outsourcing to drive growth, they will find value in service providers that can enhance their agility through a variety of secure, scalable infrastructure models and flexible end-to-end solutions,” he added.

The global study surveyed 550 IT leaders from seven countries, including the U.S. and Japan.