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Backup and Storage

Cloud adoption is up but security concerns persist, says study

But one expert says cloud computing has made it out of the ‘hype phase’

More UK businesses are turning to cloud computing services to manage their data and document storage, with research published today (September 18th) from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) showing first-time users of the service rose by 27 per cent last year.

However, despite adoption being accelerated across the UK, CIF noted that security was still a major concern.

In total 250 IT decision-makers at private and public sector organisations were polled as part of the research, which showed 61 per cent of companies were using cloud-based services compared with just 48 per cent in 2011.

And more businesses were requesting pilot schemes before formally adopting the services, with more than half (59 per cent) conducting a trial study before they committed to the cloud.

"Cloud service providers should ensure that such trial capabilities are made available to demonstrate transparency of practice and capability. This in turn assists in establishing trust between the customer and the provider,” said CIF chair Andy Burton.

But despite the growing rate of trial and adoption, almost 90 per cent of those decision-makers polled from the public sector and 78 per cent from private business admitted data security was a primary concern.

Others cited fears of losing full control of their IT services, supplier lock-in and the cost of migration as being further concerns.

With the Washing Technology Blog’s Nick Wakeman commenting this week that the cloud computing services on offer today had made it through the so-called ‘hype phase’ that surrounds new technologies into a consistent and reliable service, the cloud is now a very viable – and affordable – option for businesses both large and small looking for anything from data storage to secure online backup.

"In short, cloud computing has survived its hype phase and is now a reliable area of business," the expert said.