London, UK — The cloud as a standalone IT improvement solution is a top priority for 40% of UK enterprises, yet it is seen as a means to solve key business issues by 75% of UK managers.

Two out of three of IT managers believe that using the cloud will give them a competitive edge in their markets. But the top priorities for UK IT managers are to improve quality of service, support mobility, and facilitate collaboration. Cost is still a major driver for the cloud, however, with three in four respondents saying they are likely to introduce new cloud solutions to reduce IT costs over the next year.

Reducing IT costs is still the cloud benefit mentioned most often, but it is not as dominant as it was a few years ago, when almost all companies singled out lower costs as the most important benefit to be gained from the cloud. Cost aspects are now the key reason for less than 40 percent of companies, while issues that influence work processes and company agility such as improved data access, introduction of new products, and changes to the application estate are the most important reasons cited in more than 60% of cases.

Most companies plan to introduce new cloud solutions over the next year. The most popular are productivity tools such as email, collaboration and office packages. While productivity tools have been well accepted in the cloud for several years, it is remarkable that over a quarter of UK companies are considering migrating their Enterprise Resource Planning solutions to the cloud.

“Making enterprise-grade applications available from mobile devices will transform workforce economics for many industries. Scale is no longer a barrier, and in the past year we have signed agreements with blue chip companies that serve well over 100,000 users. The survey demonstrates that the appetite to embrace the full potential of cloud is growing,” said Sam Kingston, Managing Director for T-Systems in the UK.

Security is a major concern but the debate is changing as the market matures. This means that security issues are not an absolute barrier to cloud adoption, but more of a parameter for choosing which cloud to use and what for. The debate on security and compliance has led to a major focus on the private cloud. Four out of ten UK enterprises have a private cloud strategy; only 8% pursue a public cloud strategy. IDC believes that the availability of more secure clouds is the key factor behind 27% of companies expecting to move their ERP solutions to the cloud as the necessary security levels, SLAs, and compliance become available.

When selecting a consulting company to work with, UK enterprises have started to look beyond their normal service provider. More than half the respondents said they were willing to work with providers with whom they had no previous experience. “We believe this gives enterprises a better chance of finding innovative ways of solving their IT needs and getting the optimal solution, not only from a cost but also from a business development perspective,” says IDC analyst Mette Ahorlu.

UK enterprises said in the interviews that they prioritize the low implementation cost and recognition of the service provider brands together with the vendor’s experience when they choose who to work with. “We would also recommend paying close attention to the vendor’s experience in smooth transition and transformation to mitigate business risks,” Ahorlu advises.

For the cloud survey commissioned by T-Systems, IDC asked CIOs and other IT top managers of 100 UK companies in the summer of 2012 how they now rated cloud computing. IDC conducted the same interviews in the Netherlands, the U.S., Switzerland, Spain and Brazil.

IDC analysts and T-Systems cloud experts are presenting the survey findings and the latest cloud solutions in free webcasts. The live webcast for the UK market will be held at 3 p.m. British Summer Time on October 4. To register for the webcast, contact http://www.t-systems.com/webcast.

Further information about Deutsche Telekom visit: http://www.telekom.com/media and http://www.telekom.com/photos.

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Cloud computing is not a new premise. In fact, the late Steve Jobs relied on a cloud server as far back as 1996 as a means of protecting some of Apple’s most coveted business plans. Today, cloud-based email is limited to 3-4% of all enterprise accounts, but is expected to jump to 50% within the next nine years.

Amazon is doing it, Google is doing it, Microsoft is doing it, Twitter is doing it. But what, exactly, is it? Essentially, cloud computing is the concept of separating your applications from your personal computer’s hardware for the purpose of added safety and accessibility. Businesses that subscribe to cloud hosting enjoy ease of access to software and data for their employees from anywhere with internet signal.

In addition, if the company’s own servers are hacked, valuable data remains safe and untouched on a remote cloud server. Another aspect of cloud computing that has businesses jumping on board is the elasticity it offers. For instance, if traffic on a website suddenly explodes, such as often happens on Twitter after a significant social event, the cloud is able to grow to maintain that traffic.

An article published on Sunday by The Guardian notes that in the U.K.; “A study in the first half of 2011, which polled IT and business decision-makers across the private and public sectors, found that almost half already use cloud services.” But cloud computing isn’t exclusive to business use, and the consumer market is seeing a distinct increase in interest.

Amazon.com recently began offering account holders 5GB of free storage space from it’s cloud drive, as well as paid plans that store from 20 to 1,000 GB of data. Apple’s iCloud, which was released last June, also offers a free 5GB to anyone who signs up, and promises to bring the personal computer even further into the cloud.

Another addition to the market this past June, Google’s Chromebook actually runs an entirely cloud-based operating system. In their advertisements, Google promises that even if you throw your device into a river, all of your data will be safe.

In addition, the OS protects itself from viruses with sandboxing, a process which isolates webpages so that malware is also isolated, and no other part of the device becomes infected. Just this month, Google opened it’s first retail location, called “The Chrome Zone”, in London — the corporation’s latest attempt to compete with Apple. Several more store locations are scheduled to open in the U.K. over the next year.

So, is cloud computing truly the way of the future? The newest technologies have certainly elicited many positive reviews. Others, however, remain skeptical that information stored on a cloud network is ever completely private, and that cloud networks send up an instant red flag to hackers as an easy target.

When Sony lost the information of 77 million playstation accounts earlier this year, the fears of loose security seemed to gain some credibility. Many industry leaders agree that there are definite flaws that come along with the advantages of cloud computing. In an interview with CNN, Thomas Parenty, managing director of Parenty Consulting warned that,

There are many motivations for why an individual or a company would want to engage in cloud computing. None of them have to do with enhanced security. You have no idea who is managing the computers with your information. You have no idea where they are.

You have no idea what protections may or may not be in place to make sure your information is not stolen or disclosed or that it does not accidentally disappear.

In the end, the responsibility falls upon the individual to weigh the pros and cons of cloud computing. Is security of the highest importance, or does speed and efficiency matter more? Lynn Mucker takes a realisitc stance on the subject in an article for MSN Money: “The cloud is relatively new, and certainly not perfect.

But it is every bit as safe as giving out your credit card number when you make a purchase over the phone or online, and that’s a risk millions take every day.”

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