A global survey of IT decision makers conducted by TNS (News - Alert), an independent research company, examined the cloud computing usage trends among enterprises and small businesses and analyzed the reasons behind the adoption of the cloud. The survey was funded by CSC (News - Alert).

For the purpose of the survey, 3,645 IT decision makers were surveyed. Respondents were from eight countries and all of them had experienced cloud computing in their respective organizations. Overall, cloud computing was viewed as an on-demand scalable service that gave access to broad network and allowed resource pooling.

According to the survey, migration to the cloud was primarily driven by the desire to connect through multiple computing devices. While 33 percent claimed that this was “the most important factor,” 21 percent believed that it helped to accelerate business and 17 percent cited cutting costs as an important factor that molded their decision to make the transition to the cloud.

In the United States, the trend was slightly different with “information access” through multiple devices claiming to take the honors while 10 percent considered the adoption of cloud computing as a means to reduce costs.

The myth of drastic reduction in costs on cloud adoption was busted when almost 82 percent of all organizations claimed that though they saved, their savings were small. Brazil was an exception, with 92 percent of organizations reaping the most cost benefit. Australia also claimed that 70 percent organizations experienced cost savings.

However, when it came to IT performance, there were almost no dissenters with nearly all organizations acknowledging boosted performance within six months of cloud adoption. On the green front, many organization spoke of a reduction in waste and lower energy consumption.

On the debit side, a few companies downsized their IT department after cloud adoption and some small businesses also faced resistance while moving to the cloud. Data security concerns remained high on the list with 47 percent in Singapore expressing data security concerns on moving to the cloud. An equal number in Brazil, however expressed least concern.

Brazil once again figured n the limelight as 97 percent of its organizations were preponderated for cloud implementation. U.S. and Australia lagged behind.