Cloud computing adoption is increasing globally, with the majority of respondents citing hybrid cloud as their preferred option for greater agility and security, according to a study conducted by Vanson Bourne for EMC Corporation/

The global study of 10,451 IT business decision-makers across 33 countries showed that respondents believe IT is a business enabler now more than ever before, yet spending is moving outside of its control. To help support business growth, a majority of respondents believe IT must act as an in-house broker of on-demand services. This pressure combined with a widening IT skills gap appears to be driving interest among IT professionals in pursuing hybrid cloud.

Critical findings from the survey include:

■ While 71% of respondents favor a strategy for IT to serve as an in-house broker of on-demand services , survey data indicates a lack of confidence in IT's own ability to help drive business growth.

■ 35% believe their organization doesn't have the right level of skills and knowledge to achieve key business priorities.

■ 69% of respondents believe training IT staff to keep pace with the implications of megatrends such as cloud , mobile, social, and Big Data, will be a challenge for their organization over the next 1-2 years.

■ Hybrid cloud adoption has grown 9% since 2013, with 27% uptake across the globe, the highest being the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region (28%), followed by Latin America (24%) and Asia Pacific and Japan (24%).

■ Roughly two-thirds of global respondents (64%) expressed a need for a hybrid cloud due to the agility and security it provides.

■ 74% believe that increasing automation in their infrastructure is imperative to business growth.

■ While organizations are moving increasingly online, only 16% of respondents would be willing to host any application on a public cloud.

■ The applications that most respondents would not be willing to put in the public cloud include financial planning (39%), human capital management (35%) and ERP (32%).

■ Developed markets with more advanced IT economies lead the charge for cloud adoption, while Emerging markets appear to be more risk averse with lower levels of cloud uptake overall.
■ Emerging markets are, however, more positive about the IT department and hybrid cloud – 79% say they expect a competitive advantage from megatrends such as cloud, mobile, social, and Big Data (vs. 75% of developed countries) and 67% think combining public and private cloud will improve security and agility (vs. 60% of developed countries)