Around two-third of UK businesses are not implementing cloud computing projects as part of their infrastructure, according to data from Forrester Research.
The figures put the country behind France and Germany, despite the UK spending proportionally more on hardware and software than other European countries.
The study found there were a number of reasons behind the apparent cold shoulder given to the cloud by UK firms. Andrew Bartels, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, said businesses in markets such as finance don’t see cloud as a cost-effective alternative to on-premises offerings. He added that companies in these markets do not feel third-party platforms offered the necessary level of data security required by financial institutions.
UK firms spend nearly a third of their IT budgets on in-house services, with investment in software growing by a tenth over the past 12 months. This figure is higher than in Germany and France where firms are less hostile to cloud.
“Software is where most of the big changes in technology are taking place,” said Bartels. “While the 2013 growth rate may not seem impressive, it will be stronger than any other tech category.”
Despite the lack of enthusiasm for cloud in financial markets, utilities and telecoms, other companies are more eager to embrace the cloud. More than half of these are using least one type of cloud service.
While cloud may not be as high a priority for UK businesses, mobility is certainly gaining traction, the report claimed. The UK is seeing rapid adoption of mobile services. Bartels said that this was because of retailers such as Tesco. He said that UK retailers were “leaders on a global basis” while French and German retailers were a little less willing to innovate, perhaps because their economies are not as retail-focused as the UK.
Within the British retail sector, 60 percent of businesses are attempting to grow their usage of mobile services, the research found.
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