Hate To Break It To You: Security Still Puts People Off The Cloud

A new piece of research looking at levels of cloud adoption has found that companies are still wary of heading cloud-wards in any sort of major way.

The global Service Provider and Performance Satisfaction report from KPMG, which took in the opinions of 330 UK-based contracts (and 2,100 deals in total), found that 71% of UK firms are spending just 10% or less of their IT budget on the cloud.

So why is there still a good deal of reservation surrounding the cloud? The main three reasons UK execs cited were, unsurprisingly, topped by security and privacy risks (26%), concerns over compliance and regulations (16%), and doubt about how easily cloud systems could be integrated with their existing IT infrastructure (16%).

The survey also found that UK businesses are still way of committing to long-term investments, despite the economy starting to move more positively. KPMG found that in terms of IT outsourcing spending over the next two to three years, only 43% were planning on an increase – that’s drastically less than last year, when 77% said they were going to up their outsourcing budget.

IT outsourcing is changing in terms of the reasons for usage, mind, with simple cost savings no longer being the main reason for outsourcing. The report found that the biggest reason for outsourcing was quality improvement (at 20%), followed by access to skills (16%) and a drive to get things to market more quickly (6%).

'Want To See Innovation'

Jason Sahota, director of KPMG’s Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory team, commented: “Despite widespread acceptance that vloud services offer access to the latest technologies, and make IT more accessible, adoption remains relatively sluggish. While concern about the security risks surrounding new technology is understandable it may also be disproportionate, as cloud options are just as safe as other outsourcing solutions.”

“Of course, investors and stakeholders will welcome caution on the part of the buyers, but they also want to see innovation, meaning that UK plc will need to find the right balance to remain competitive.”

Author: Darren Allan