Little more than one in ten businesses (11%) are currently using cloud computing and almost three quarters of IT managers (74%) say that it is irrelevant to their businesses, a new study by risk consultancy Protiviti has found.

Furthermore, only three per cent are using the cloud widely across their organisations and only 16 per cent plan to implement some form of it over the next three years.

Security remains the biggest barrier, followed by data privacy and concerns over reliability and availability of services. Backing a key finding from The Cloud Circle’s 1st Industry Trends Report, Protiviti’s research suggests that large forms are just as likely to adopt the cloud as small ones, overturning the previous market sway.

Jonathan Wyatt, managing director of Protiviti UK said: “It’s surprising that so many IT managers appear to see no value in cloud technology. The cloud takes the opportunities presented by outsourcing to the next level.  Emerging technologies and cloud services provide all organisations with opportunities to change the way they operate and ultimately to improve performance whilst reducing cost.

“At a time when companies are looking at ways to grow whilst keeping a lid on costs, cloud computing offers a way to significantly reduce overheads and to allow supply to be more directly matched to demand.”

He advised organisations to start “experimenting” with cloud by adopting some Software-as-a-Service in non business critical areas. He pointed to retail as an industry which is ripe to benefit from cloud, as it can serve seasonal demand without investing in on-premise infrastructure.