Xantus surveyed a panel of 50 CIOs from organisations across a range of public and private sectors and sizes. Overall, the results show that, while there is still a lack of clarity and a reluctance to fully commit to the cloud, there is a general acceptance of the benefits and a growing commitment to develop those benefits as far as practicable.

Even with their feet planted firmly on the ground, CIOs recognise that cloud computing offers genuine opportunities and there are short and long-term benefits to making it work.

"Agility" was a term frequently used by those interviewed, highlighting the ability of the cloud to immediately increase storage capacity or computing power at specific times or pressure points.

Findings include:

• 23% of CIOs are currently using cloud;
• 53% plan to use cloud in the next 12 months;
• 90% have conducted a feasibility study into cloud;
• 50% say integration of cloud with existing systems is a potential show-stopper;
• Security only ranked fifth in the list of CIO concerns;
• Most CIOs expected an ROI of 10-25% on the cloud;
• Public sector more bullish than private sector.
  
  

Xantus is an independent management consultancy, specialising in IT-enabled business change. It focuses on changing business through IT and making IT run more effectively.