Cloud satisfaction on the up

Latest research from Cloud Industry Forum also picks out public sector and SMB market as growth areas for the coming year

Customer satisfaction with the cloud is improving, according to the latest claims from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF).

The organisation questioned 250 UK-based organisations, and the results showed that 61 per cent are currently using cloud-based services, with a 92 per cent satisfaction level. The adoption figure showed a 27-point increase since January 2011.

Larger organisations are still more advanced in the cloud, with 68 per cent adopting cloud-based services, compared with 52 per cent of firms with fewer than 20 employees.

Results also revealed little disparity between the public and private sector, with a 62 per cent and 61 per cent adoption rate respectively.

Looking ahead, of the 39 per cent not using cloud services today, CIF found that one in four plans to do so in the coming year.

Public sector organisations and SMBs appear to be the most dymanic sectors in the next 12 months, with 34 per cent and 30 per cent respectively revealing plans to use cloud services.

Andy Burton, chairman of CIF, said: "The dramatic overall increase in cloud adoption in the UK market suggests that the enthusiasm for cloud is still strong. Although there have been increases in adoption across the board, the public sector has seen the most considerable growth, which, given the recent government interest in cloud, should come as little surprise.

"In a departure from our previous research, enterprises of 200 employees or more have leapt ahead of smaller organisations in terms of cloud adoption."

In addition, just over three quarters (76 per cent) of respondents currently using cloud services expect to increase their use over the next 12 months, slightly up from the previous figure of 73 per cent.

Email services, data storage services and data backup services emerged as the areas most likely to benefit from this expected increase.

The research also continued to show that the primary reason for the adoption of cloud services is the flexible model of delivery (71 per cent), as well as scalability (66 per cent) and the low cost of adoption (58 per cent).