A poll of attendees at Cloud Clarity, a cloud-focused educational event for end users run by Node4, found that over half of IT decision makers plan to move to a fully cloud-based IT infrastructure within the next five years. But a significant minority of 27% said cloud would be unlikely for their business.
The survey also found that managing email is a key driver for cloud adoption with 47% of attendees agreeing that it would benefit their business to host mail applications in the cloud.
Data storage and file sharing were also cited by over a quarter of attendees as key applications that would benefit from being moved to the cloud. Telephony and voice communications was the other critical business application that the decision makers would like to see in the cloud.
"More and more businesses are evaluating cloud services as a tool for reducing costs, limiting risk and providing the flexibility they need to run their businesses in a fast paced, technology driven workplace," commented Steve Denby, Head of Sales South, Node4
"Rather than a risk, cloud services are now mostly viewed as an IT solution that gives organisations of all sizes access to the latest and most up to date technology, enabling businesses to gain competitive advantage."