Research published by analysts Frost & Sullivan this week has revealed that over half of New Zealand companies surveyed are looking to increase their cloud budgets.

Two in five organisations which use cloud services in New Zealand spend more than 10% of their total IT budget on the cloud, whilst 57% of organisations intend to increase their cloudy budgets in the next 12 months.

As part of its State of Cloud Computing New Zealand 2012 research, Frost & Sullivan examined the usual metrics concerning the cloud – primarily the biggest drivers, concerns, as well as costs.

The research found that software as a service (SaaS) was, unsurprisingly, the most commonly used cloud model, with lower costs, standardisation, and seamless integration with legacy systems cited as the main reasons for SaaS success. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, as it hits prevalent trends.

Similarly, security was cited as the most important criterion …