Cloud Spending to Increase Over the Next Year

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More and more businesses are moving to the cloud, research shows.

In CompTIA’sSecond Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study, 56 percent of organizations surveyed said their investment in cloud computing will increase by 10 percent or more over the next year.

And Seth Robinson, director of technology analysis for CompTIA, said he expects organizations will spend the extra money on more than just standard cloud services.

"This additional investment will likely be accompanied by greater complexity in the overall cloud strategy, such as moving to a hybrid cloud model or adopting more advanced services beyond Software as a Service," Robinson said in a prepared release. "Organizations may begin exploring options such as Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service, which will allow them to experiment with custom application development."

The study also revealed that it’s not just IT departments making the transition to the cloud. More than 20 percent of those surveyed said parts of their business pursue cloud solutions independently of the IT department, which suggests there is significant momentum for individual departments within an organization to increasingly seek out cloud solutions on their own.

"Most Software as a Service applications are easily accessible through the Internet, making it relatively easy for business employees to use them without involving the IT staff," Robinson said.

He cautions, however, that there are risks with that approach, as other departments often lack the awareness of securityand reliability that the IT department has.

Robinson said that, in turn, has the potential to create issues with business continuity and data leakage.

The survey also found that employees desire more education about cloud-based services as increasing numbers of businesses and organizations shift to that technology.
According to the survey, 66 percent of cloud users were looking for a clearer definition of the services, up six percentage points from a year ago.

Areas where users said they want more clarity include the types of cloud computing offerings, such as Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service, and the types of deployment models, including public cloud, private cloud or hybrid.

CompTIAis a nonprofit trade association for the information IT industry. The study surveyed 500 IT and business professionals in the United States involved in IT decision-making