05 Jul 2010

Cost savings 'driver for cloud growth'

The cost savings that companies can make through the uptake of cloud computing have been the major driver behind the growth in popularity of the technology, it has been stated.

Hugo Harber, director of convergence and network strategy at Star, said scalability and flexibility have also been key components, but the main attraction of cloud computing has been the way in which firms can economise scale to make savings.

"[Businesses are] buying into expertise in hardware and application maintenance and management. In addition to this you achieve scalability and flexibility which you cannot achieve with owned infrastructure," he said.

According to 360°IT, half of organisations have said that what excites them most about the cloud - aside from the acknowledged business benefits of cost saving and increased agility - is that resources can be reassigned to focus more on creativity and growth rather than fire drills.