Cloud adoption growing faster and faster – have you moved yet?

Cloud adoption is growing at faster rate with nearly half (over 45%) of enterprises have gone beyond the pilot phase for cloud deployment, stressing customer interest in quality security and support alternatives together with private and hybrid cloud solutions, a new survey revealed.

The latest Microsoft-commissioned survey carried out by 451 Research also noted that about 32% of them currently have a formal cloud computing plan under their overall IT and business strategy.

Last year, on-premises private cloud adoption accounted for about a quarter of on-premises infrastructure spending, while the hosted private cloud is set to experience the highest growth rate for off-premises infrastructure, which is expected to account for 32% of hosted spending in the upcoming two years.

Microsoft Hosting Service Providers vice president Marco Limena said that hosted private cloud is a gateway to hybrid cloud environments for many customers.

"We’ve seen significant traction for these environments as our hosting business continues growing at a high rate year-over-year," Limena said.

"With this momentum continuing to build, it’s clear that we’ve reached a tipping point where most companies have moved beyond the discovery phase and are now moving forward with cloud deployments to deliver improved business results and capabilities."

The report adds that such momentum towards hybrid cloud infrastructures would generate considerable opportunities for hosting service providers to offer flexible, secure environments, while meeting unique customer requirements.

451 Research Digital Infrastructure and Data Strategy senior vice president Michelle Bailey said while cloud environments are significantly changing the way businesses operate today, one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of security.

"As a result, security has emerged as the primary, and potentially most lucrative, cloud opportunity for hosters," Bailey said.

"Hosting is now the de facto solution for ‘trusted cloud’ implementations, and customers are willing to pay a premium for assurances.

"Our research shows that 60 percent of customers would pay their hosting service provider a 26 percent premium on average for security guarantees — and an additional 25 percent are already paying for such services."