Research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that adoption of cloud from retailers in the Asia Pacific region is currently slow but will progress substantially within five years.

According to the survey, only 19% of the 56 respondents were currently pushing through a cloud adoption strategy for their business, but 32% stated they were considering implementing cloud within the next two-to-five years.

IDC further noted in their research that the three main barriers to widespread Asia Pacific cloud adoption were data security, firewalls and integration to internal IT systems.

The report, entitled “Cloud Adoption in the Asia Pacific – Retail Industry”, was carried out between December 2011 and January 2012 among mid-to-large retail companies across the Asia Pacific region, covering Australia, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, India and Singapore.

Research manager Kumar Gs Das called the Asian retail industry “cautious” about cloud and added: “The majority of them recognises that the …