Chip-maker Intel has reported savings of $17m (£10.3m) through the use of its private cloud over the first half of 2011.

Intel, which began using the cloud in 2006, runs its engineering, finance, legal, HR, sales and security applications on its cloud. It says secured infrastructure, greater responsiveness and lower business costs have led to markedly improved profits.

Cost saving is often cited as one of the major advantages of cloud computing. Intel's Q2 report on its profits from the first half of the year shows how the ability to customise a cloud to cater to a company's specific needs can reward the company with many business benefits – both in terms of financial gains and improved efficiency.

Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, said: “The cloud segment is up 50 per cent in the first half of 2011 versus first half of last year, demonstrating how fast that business continues to ramp.

“We believe that we are very early in the cloud build-out and Intel remains extremely well positioned to profitably grow from the explosion of mobile devices and Internet-based services.”

The technology developer appears to be reaping the benefits of the money and brain power it has invested in cloud computing. Its private cloud as been hailed as a great success by those within the company. According to Intel APAC's IT director Liam Keating, the company's  provisioning time “has reduced from 90 days to three hours and [is] now on the way to minutes.”

Earlier this month, it was announced that Intel is going to be investing a further $30m (£18.2m) into cloud computing research. Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer stated that this further investment is “expected to open amazing possibilities” for the company.