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IT professionals are becoming more confident in the security of the public cloud compared to corporate data centres, according to the latest study from IT consulting firm SADA Systems.

The poll, which quizzed more than 200 IT managers around their use of public cloud services, found that 84% of respondents were using some form of public cloud infrastructure today.

49% of respondents said they used Google Cloud Platform, compared with 48% for Microsoft and 42% for AWS – although it’s worth noting that SADA’s work comes primarily through Google and Microsoft reselling.

Half (50%) of those polled said they are likely to increase their public cloud usage by at least 25% over the next three years, with a further 25% saying they would increase their usage by more than half. 45% of firms polled said it took them three to six months to migrate to public cloud, with 23% saying it took three months.

In terms of issues with cloud adoption, more than half (51%) of respondents said concerns around data security prevented them from quicker adoption, while long-term viability of cloud (40%) and escalating costs (33%) were also highly cited.

“All signs point to public cloud adoption growing and enterprise IT becoming more comfortable with the prospect of running their most sensitive data on public cloud infrastructure,” said Tony Safoian, SADA president and CEO in a statement. “Security and reliability will always be primary concerns – as they should – and companies should lean on expert consultants and integrators to guide them in addressing these issues.

“The convenience of public cloud, coupled with easy access to proven resources for managing these environments, make the option of moving to public cloud too compelling to ignore,” Safoian added.