It seems all the hype around cloud computing is finally turning into a reality. A new report from Cisco shows a dramatic rise in interest in cloud computing amoung IT decision makers in the UK and Ireland, as 90% say it’s now on their agenda.

Cloud computing was only on the horizon for 52% of respondents in the same Cisco CloudWatch survey in 2011, which shows the progress made over the past 12 months.

Cost saving was the number one reason (up from fifth last year) given for moving to the cloud. 54% of respondents currently use private cloud (up from 34% in 2011) and public cloud usage is up from 18% in 2011 to 29% in 2012. Security remains the number one concern regarding cloud adoption but worries have allayed somewhat when compared with 2011 results.

“Cloud usage has now gone mainstream,” said Ian Foddering, CTO of Cisco UK and Ireland. “After several years of ‘hype’ across the IT industry, it now seems that cloud is maturing and organisations across a broad range of sectors are realising the benefits of moving to a cloud model.”

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