More than 80% of managers agree meeting regulatory requirements and the ability to tailor reporting remains key

More than 90% of CIOs and IT directors believe that data and its sensitivity level dictates the type of cloud solution they are considering when researching cloud vendors.

That’s according to new research undertaken by White Label Media on behalf of Insight UK Ltd which also revealed that being fast to market was also a top priority for those deploying IT systems, with more than 84% of those surveyed indicating this was the case.

The study surveyed 80 IT directors and CIOs of companies within various verticals between December and January of this year.

81% of those questioned also agreed that meeting regulatory requirements and the ability to tailor reporting were key to the business, with many citing this as one of the main reasons why corporates look to swap things around.

Those questioned also believed qualified targeting of products was a must in order to be sure they were delivering the right service.

“Even the most researched products can bomb if you misjudge your target market but with the advent of social media and other technologies allowing you to better engage with your customer base, you should still be able to hit the "25" rather than the bullseye more often than not,” said one CIO.

While more than half (63%) believed their organisation was fully utilising current software licensing and other IT investments that have been made, some 37% stated this was not the case.

However, while only 28% of those surveyed felt that current IT Infrastructure meant that time spent on IT administration was eating away time and resources from the knowledge workers within the business, more than 45% believed that current IT infrastructure limited their firm’s business potential.

Interestingly, only 15 out of the 80 managers questioned (19%) believed taking IT as a service (i.e. the cloud) posed major security threats to their business.

“Many cloud vendors have excellent security around their offerings to a level that many corporates wouldn't necessarily implement around any in-house products,” said one IT manager. “As long as you make sure that your key data is secure and you know where it is held (dedicated to you if necessary rather than on a server with other multiple clients who may be more targetable by external parties than you), you should be fine. Ironically, many corporates that accuse cloud vendors of being insecure are less secure and more open to attack using their own internal products which are often poorly secured with many current or ex support employees knowing passwords and access routes etc.”