Only one out of ten European enterprises using public cloud

Cloud computing has now been adopted by 74% of European enterprises across Europe with the vast majority of them (and 47% of the total) using private cloud as the predominant approach, according to a survey commissioned by global managed services provider Easynet.

The research found on-premise hosting to be the second most popular approach (26%) while hybrid cloud, the combination of using private and public cloud, was shown to be a significant alternative form of the technology with almost one in five (17%) of companies now using it as their main form of cloud computing. The survey was carried out on IT decision-makers at companies with over 1,000 employees across sectors in UK and Europe.

The least popular form of cloud computing was found to be public cloud. Only one in ten companies (11%) across Europe were found to be using this as their main approach although this figure was higher in Belgium where 17 % of companies predominantly use public cloud.

Belgian enterprises, together with UK companies, are also the keenest users of hybrid cloud with 23% and 22% of firms respectively using this as their main approach. Interestingly, the research revealed that hybrid and public cloud approaches are more likely to be used by respondents whose organisation manages their multiple CSPs via an integrator.

Across Europe, enterprises in the business and consumer services (30%) and IT and computer services (21%) are unsurprisingly leading the trend towards adoption of hybrid cloud while companies in utilities were found to be the least inclined to opt for hybrid with only 3% in this sector doing so. Banking and financial services, together with utilities were found to favour private cloud (52% and 59% of them chose this solution respectively), whereas government was the sector most reluctant to move to the cloud, opting primarily for on-premise hosting (52%).

One possible explanation for enterprise reticence to go beyond private and on-premise cloud is the lingering fears around security and privacy. The survey found that the main challenges to the uptake of cloud technology were data security/trust (62%) and data privacy regulation (48%).

Adrian Thirkill, UK MD for Enterprise at Easynet said; “As volumes of corporate data continue to grow, European enterprises are acknowledging the importance of cloud computing for storing and managing data. While private cloud is currently the most popular form of the technology, almost a fifth of European companies are now deploying hybrid cloud, which allows them to store business-critical data in their private cloud and less critical data in the public cloud. We have helped businesses throughout Europe reap the benefits of hybrid cloud. This balanced mix of cloud technologies offers enterprises the highest security and cost efficiency, enabling them to get on with their core business knowing that their enterprise data is secure and accessible.”