A TechSoup Global survey has revealed that most non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are keen to move to the cloud but need to be better informed about its strengths and weaknesses.

TechSoup’s 2012 Global Cloud Computing Survey interviewed over 10,000 NGOs, non-profits and charities and found that many of these companies were unaware they were already using cloud services.

Sound familiar? Well a study from Citrix last month showed that 95% of 1000 Americans surveyed who thought they weren’t using the cloud actually were, so more knowledge on what the cloud encompasses can now be attributed to NGOs, as well as consumers.

Despite this, TechSoup Global – itself a non-profit – noted in its response how many NGOs were utilising the cloud.

The key takeaways from the report are:

• 90% of those surveyed are already using cloud computing, with 53% hoping to move “a significant portion” of their portfolio into the cloud within three years
• Three in five surveyed said lack of knowledge proved the greatest barrier to cloud adoption
• Four out of five polled said easier hardware and software administration was the best cloud benefit

The survey was carried out in 88 countries across six continents, with 10593 responses.

In terms of cloud acceleration in less developed IT infrastructures, the report revealed NGOs in Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa are best placed for moving their IT system to the cloud.

Qumu report shows security fears may be dying down

Elsewhere, a report from video platform providers Qumu has revealed that nearly 45% of the 700 IT professionals surveyed are considering moving to the cloud, with better security perhaps surprisingly cited as the main reason.

Of the respondents who touted benefits of moving to the cloud, 30% said it was due to better security integration, with the usual suspects of cost efficiency (26.9%), increased mobility (25.9%) and time saved (22%) the next best.

Alongside those who said they were moving to the cloud, 44.9% of those asked said they were already there in some capacity, with the top applications in the cloud being email (25.9%), storage (24%) and document management (13.9%).

The figures from TechSoup Global noted that security was the third highest major barrier to cloud adoption, with 45% of respondents noting data security and data loss concerns as a worry.

Interestingly, ‘lack of trust’ in the cloud was cited by 44% of those polled.

Lack of knowledge (60%) – in terms of inadequate training and lack of management support – as well as monthly setup and migration costs (49%) were the two higher rating cloud adoption barriers.

Security, of course, is a prevalent general issue. Any organisation which has worries about migrating to the cloud will usually pick security issues as the main reason they won’t go over.

Inevitably, individuals can be affected too – just ask Mat Honan, who suffered a security nightmare when his iCloud, alongside Twitter, MacBook Air and iPad, were all remotely wiped or otherwise went down in a disastrous weekend.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told it as it was last month, when he said: “I think [cloud’s] going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years”.

But what do you take away from this research? Is it good to see security fears being allayed, or should this be taken with a pinch of salt?