New research conducted by Dell has shown the extent to which cloud computing is being adopted in the healthcare industry. The company's report, the Dell Global Technology Adoption Index, found that the vast majority (96 per cent) of mid-size healthcare organisations surveyed are using or considering using cloud computing.

Google has revealed its predictions for cloud computing in the coming years, with the company expecting adoption of the technology to continue rising quickly. Barak Regev, Google's cloud head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, stated that the speed at which consumers are moving data to the cloud is increasing.

Cloud adoption will increase in the early months of 2015, forecasts the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF). The organisation predicts that 90 per cent of UK-based companies will have formally adopted at least one cloud service by the end of next year. The body stated that this will be up from 78 per cent in 2014, while two-thirds (60 per cent) of these will use two or more material cloud services.

A new report by research company Gartner has described software as a service (SaaS) deployments as being critical for organisations. SaaS is one of the most commonly used types of cloud computing by businesses and Gartner's report stated that companies are using the technology for development and testing production, as well as mission-critical workloads.

Cloud computing has been named among the top areas IT departments will be investing in during 2014. The new Computerworld Forecast Study 2015 reveals that spending on cloud computing will rise by 42 per cent in the next 12 months, while spending on security technologies will increase by 45 per cent.

Cloud computing has seen mass adoption in the last year and the vast majority of companies have now used the technology in a part of their business. According to Accenture Australia's cloud computing lead Alison Cairns, "everyone and anyone" is now using cloud solutions.

Larger companies tend to have more concerns about cloud security than smaller businesses, according to a new report. Research conducted in July 2014 by the Thunderbird School of Global Management for Insight found that while efficiency savings are driving a lot of enterprises toward using the cloud, many still do not really understand how the technology works.

Analysts at Forrester have stated that organisations must be prepared for cloud data breaches, as they are "inevitable". In its new report, Predictions 2015: The Days Of Fighting The Cloud Are Over, Forrester explained data breaches will happen and will be the fault of chief information officers rather than software-as-a-service providers.

Spending on cloud security is set to rise, according to an industry expert. Kris Lovejoy, general manager of IBM's security services division, stated that the increasing adoption of SaaS-based services will mean budgets have to rise.

New research conducted by the Ponemon Institute has found that IT professionals are losing the cloud security battle. The new report, entitled Challenges of Cloud Information Governance: A Global Data Security Study, revealed that almost half (44 per cent) of all the corporate data that is currently being stored in cloud environments is not managed or controlled by the firm's IT department.