UK deployments of cloud computing will increase by almost four-fifths (78%) between now and
2012, research by the National Outsourcing Association claims.

The group’s research shows that businesses in the country will turn to the cloud – used in the NOA study to denote public, private and ‘hybrid’ cloud systems – primarily as a cost-saving strategy.

But as penetration – which the group defines as “percentage of IT infrastructure moved to the cloud” – in the UK currently sits at just 3%, the predicted 78% increase in deployments will still represent a small fraction of overall IT systems.

“Cloud computing looks set to continue its march into UK businesses over the next few years,” said Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA. “However, it appears that there is still a long way to go before cloud becomes truly ubiquitous, as penetration is still fairly low. Being so new, users will need to ensure that they fully understand their options.”

Respondents to the NOA survey expressed concerns commonly associated with public cloud computing – 92% are worried about being ‘locked in’ to a single provider’s system while 75% have data security concerns.