Cloud adoption 'grows by 83 per cent'

Businesses are preparing to expand their cloud usage over the next 12 months, with most companies seeking hybrid offerings, according to new research.

A study conducted by Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has revealed that cloud adoption has increased by 83 per cent since CIF research was first carried out in 2010, with CIF CEO Alex Hilton suggesting that the growth of digital technologies are prompting a time of "unprecedented change".

"Cloud is critical in enabling companies to cope with this change and this research highlights how organisations are increasingly and consistently warming to the cloud delivery model, especially as they begin the realise the benefits to be had from migrating their apps and infrastructure to the cloud," he said.

CIF's research also found that 88 per cent of businesses are already using the cloud, with 58 per cent taking a hybrid approach. According to CIF, this data indicates that businesses are beginning to understand the benefits of spreading their technological infrastructure across both cloud and on-site platforms to ensure complete flexibility and peace of mind.

The research shows that this steadily developing attitude is reflected in the industry's concerns about the cloud, with 62 per cent stating they're worried about data privacy while 35 per cent suggested they're worried about lack of budget.

Commenting on the results of the research, Hilton added that a hybrid approach could prove to be the ideal choice for small and large businesses alike during initial adoption of cloud computing.

"While smaller businesses are able to make the logical step to remove their depreciated hardware assets and move entirely to the cloud, this is less feasible for larger organisations with heavy infrastructure investments," he said.

"Therefore, ‘cloud everything’ will not be attainable for all for some time and we predict that the vast majority of companies will continue to maintain hybrid IT environments."