With executives satisfied that they can get a return on investment for low-level apps in the cloud, 2014 is going to be the year when enterprise mission-critical apps will take charge, according to cloudy infrastructure platform provider Virtustream.

The findings have been released in a report, entitled “ERP – The Cuckoo in Cloud Land”, and gives insight both into the ERP (enterprise resource planning) landscape as well as the position of mission critical apps in the cloud.

The report initially shows that SAP still dominates the ERP space. 84% of respondents said they used at least one form of ERP, with SAP comprising 55% and rival Oracle 44%, forming something of a duopoly.

Further, SAP users have a more advanced cloud strategy according to the research. Almost nine in 10 (89%) SAP users have utilised cloud in their organisation, compared with 77% of overall respondents.

The report argues that each company …