Cloud computing reduces costs by a quarter

Early adopters of cloud computing models seem to have reaped the benefits, according to new research.

The Fujitsu study showed 97% of respondents had made savings by implementing cloud-computing projects, with 71% of them claiming savings met or exceeded their expectations.

On average organisations were saving 24% on the projects, but for some this cost benefit was as high as 40%.

Only 3% of companies claimed to have found no cost saving whatsoever.

Darren Ratcliffe, manager of cloud platforms for Fujitsu in the UK and Ireland, said: “There are few technology trends which have caused as much debate and polarisation as cloud has in the last two years. This research is invaluable in helping to separate cloud fact from cloud fiction.”

“The findings show that cloud users are reaping the benefits and are achieving and exceeding their expectations,” he added.

The most common applications users put into the cloud were website workloads, test and development, and email, whilst finance, accounting and HR/payroll were the least likely.

The majority of respondents had entered into private cloud offerings (73%) rather than public cloud (30%) proving there were still concerns about taking important data outside of the office firewall.

The biggest fear companies voiced was not knowing where their data was located. Yet, despite the nerves surrounding cloud security, only 13% were worried about their data being accessed by an unauthorised third party.

Ratcliffe claimed private clouds were the right choice when it came to “sensitive data” but the public option offered “IT flexibility, low costs and fast deployment of new business projects with no investment risk.”