68% of UK Enterprises Adopted Cloud

68% of enterprise business in the UK have either fully or partly adopted cloud technologies, according to a study commissioned by data storage and management specialist, NetApp, Inc.

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveyed the opinions of 200 IT decision makers across the UK and found that UK businesses are at very different stages of cloud adoption.

According to the research, over two-thirds of businesses with 1000+ employees have chosen to adopt cloud and future-proof their IT, with 43% having cloud technologies in place and considering more. However, this isn’t necessarily true of all UK businesses, as when including the SME market, 12% of IT professionals report that their business is not using any cloud technology.

The survey also revealed that despite cloud being well publicised over the past few years, 1 in 5 businesses were still in discovery phase and not reaping the flexible and efficiency benefits which cloud has to offer.

"Cloud has in many ways changed the way in which customers buy and vendors and partners sell IT solutions. At NetApp we have worked hard to stay ahead of this changing landscape and continue to provide our customers with future ready IT that is both flexible and efficient" says Pete Rawden, Partner Sales Director, UK and Ireland for NetApp. "We strive to enable our partners to go to market with the right tools, training and solutions to maximise the opportunity cloud can present to both current and future customers."

Of the organisations polled, 63% of respondents moving to the cloud were from financial services. This was followed by those in retail, distribution and transport where 39% claimed they were moving to the cloud. In contrast, the manufacturing industry was least in favour of moving to the cloud as 22% of respondents not using cloud technologies were from this industry.

Rawden comments: "Sectors such as finance have stereotypically led the way in adopting new technologies. However, we are starting to see other industries embracing the benefits of cloud and there will be lots more opportunity for vendors and partners as cloud adoption increases in the UK."