A cross-sector survey by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has revealed the extent to which cloud solutions have penetrated the market, so much so that the CIF boldly proclaimed that cloud computing has 'achieved mainstream deployment' in the UK with 69% of organisations formally adopting at least one cloud-based service.
The survey tapped into the enterprise, SMB and public sector, and although the figures are not sector specific, with just 4% of the entire sample of 250 organisations having not wanting cloud-based services there appears to be a big appetite for cloud-based IT delivery among the majority.
The research also found that satisfaction with the use of cloud solutions is high at 91%. And the adoption of cloud services also remains healthy with 68% of current cloud users saying they will extend the use of cloud solutions within their organisations over the next year.
According to CIF, the majority of organisations (86%) operate an on-premise server room or data centre and therefore well invested in on-premise IT when they make a cloud service decision. The typical end user has a Hybrid IT estate comprising a range of cloud, on-premise and hosted services.
CIF founder Andy Burton commented: "This is the fourth year we have conducted this research and the fourth year in a row we have seen increased roll-out and deployment of cloud-based services.
"Looking forward to 2014, in regard to the 31% of companies not yet making use of cloud, a third of them are expected to within the year."
"Cloud is now recognised as a credible deployment model within the context of an organisation's IT strategy. But it is not seen as the only viable model and most organisations foresee the continued use of on-premise IT alongside cloud-based services for the foreseeable future, resulting in the sustainable prevalence of hybrid IT estates."
Alex Hilton, CEO of CIF, added: "In 2014 we believe that 15% of businesses will report a primary cloud-based IT strategy, a further 15% will remain entirely on-premise and 70% will have a hybrid IT environment, meaning that the majority of companies will continue to invest in on-premise IT alongside cloud solutions.
"Hybrid IT is the new norm and we will see the complexities of monitoring and managing hybrid IT environments subside as interoperability improves, as commercial policies and practices for data migration simplify and as technical standards mature. IT is now firmly evolving as an enabler of business agility and transformation rather than a cost centre to deliver applications and devices."