Businesses Avoid Cloud Accounting

The migration of accounting applications to a cloud computing model is being avoided by businesses due to concerns over security and data ownership.

Four out of ten companies already use the cloud for some business software services but only one in five use it for accounting applications, according to research from Accountz.

‘Research from the Cloud Industry Forum shows that 48% of businesses are already using the cloud in one form or another. But look closer and you will see that business is simply not willing to migrate accounting applications,’ said Quentin Pain, chairman of Accountz. ‘Anything financially sensitive remains firmly on the ground.’

Despite low take-up in larger businesses at 15%, small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) appear to be early adopters and are more likely to use cloud-based accounting applications, with 29% using these services to some extent. However, cloud usage drops to 10% in public sector organisations.

The research polled 650 senior IT and business decision-makers in enterprises, SMBs, public sector organisations and the distribution channel.

'Our customers have anxieties about data security, privacy and data ownership. And the Cloud Industry Forum’s research tells a similar story: 41% of the participants did not want their data hosted outside Britain and this percentage exceeded 50% for smaller businesses and the public sector,' added Pain.