Here's why the cloud is now a necessity

Cloud is no longer a 'nice to have' for businesses, but is a necessity in every company's IT infrastructure, according to research by Harvard Business Review (HBR), sponsored by Verizon.

Out of 452 senior business executives from global organisations, 84 per cent said their use of cloud has increased over the last 12 months.

They are no longer just using small, easy to adopt apps such as Salesforce, but are now running up to the entire supply chain on cloud-based technologies, which has had a massive impact on their business, HBR found.

The respondents reported that the key benefits of the cloud are business agility and collaboration, with 72 per cent of those questioned saying collaboration is a key part of their cloud adoption because it allows colleagues to quickly share information and work together.

Although security is always a key concern when it comes to adopting the cloud, 39 per cent found security has improved since they moved to the cloud because businesses find the support given by cloud providers helps create a buffer when it comes to risk.

This has also changed the attitude towards cloud suppliers and vendors. Established cloud companies are becoming more in demand because companies realise how important it is to use a trusted vendor.

A total 74 per cent of executives said they were more likely to choose an established cloud supplier rather than a niche company because they feel they are more suitable for large-scale infrastructure.

"As this research shows, cloud has rapidly gone from the periphery to something that you can trust to run critical parts of your business," Siki Giunta, global senior vice president, Cloud Verizon Enterprise Solutions said. "And that’s what companies of all sizes in every sector are doing. They may have first been tempted by the promise of “the cloud,” but now infrastructure as a service is just a standard part of their IT infrastructure."