That’s part of the findings from a new report of 100 IT professionals by Interxion, a provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services.

Polling took place at Cloud Expo Europe earlier this year with the results published today (14 March).

It found more than a third (36%) of respondents said they placed the most value on reliability, with ease of set up (26%) and low cost (16%) trailing behind.

Yet when asked how confident they felt the service they receive from their cloud provider is reliable, only 30% of respondents agreed they feel very confident.

More interestingly one in ten admitted they do not feel confident they receive a reliable service.

Given this focus on reliability, it’s no surprise 59% of people would question where a cloud service is hosted, stating it’s important to them when making a purchasing decision.

This is something that new entrants to the market, such as systems integrators (SIs) and telcos, need to bear in mind when launching a new cloud service. Interestingly, two thirds (61%) of respondents said that they would consider buying a cloud service from an SI.

Douglas Loewe managing director UK Interxion said: "This survey confirms what we’ve known for a long time; trust in the cloud is the key to adoption.

"As SIs look to develop new business models by offering cloud services, they need to ensure that they choose a stable, secure and reliable location from which to host them.

"In addition, by testing out new applications in our Cloud Test Lab before they launch, cloud service providers can be confident of meeting the demands of the real world."