CIOs are preferring hybrid cloud models with security the primary motivation for adoption, according to a new study from NetApp.

The research, which polled 750 CIOs and IT managers in France, Germany and the UK, saw more than half of respondents in each country saying they use a combination of private and public cloud. Germany came out on top with 69%, compared with France (61%) and UK (58%). In terms of partner options, local service providers are the most popular, cited by a combined 26% of respondents, ahead of larger cloud service providers (18%) and global system integrators (17%).

56% of base respondents say security is the key motivation for cloud adoption, ahead of flexibility (55%) and cost savings (54%). For individual results, 61% of French respondents chose ease of use, while 53% in Germany cite data protection.

When it came to specific workloads, it was the usual routine on the whole. 60% of German respondents cite file storage compared with 56% for the UK and 53% for France. The study noted a wide variety of other workloads, from remote working, collaboration tools, analysis, and disaster recovery.

Only 3% of respondents say they are not using any cloud services, or are still in the gestation stage.

“Enterprises need to be able to choose which workloads belong in the cloud and choose the best partners to move them across a hybrid landscape,” said Martin Warren, NetApp cloud solutions marketing manager EMEA. “They need to have visibility into cost, performance and data placement to make informed business and regulatory decisions across the full data lifecycle. And they want to harness every advantage of cloud economics – from new ideas to concepts to production. We have strong solutions and strategies to deliver all of this.”

Writing for this publication last month, David H Deans noted the importance of the ‘torchbearer’ CIO when it came to hybrid IT and business models. “Torchbearer CIOs place far more emphasis on building an agile organisational culture – one that supports rapid software developer experimentation and IT services prototyping – to help their team reach the market first with innovative new offerings,” Deans wrote.

“In addition, the torchbearer CIOs are eager to form partnerships that exploit the full potential of digital business technologies. They recognise that few enterprises can provide the full array of products, services and experiences that their stakeholders need and want.”