UK firms' move towards cloud computing will be sustained for the foreseeable future, it is claimed, which could lead to more job roles for IT contractors helping businesses facilitate the change.

Star.co.uk's director of convergence and network strategy Hugo Harber says that the primary driver behind the shift to virtualised networks is the cost saving that can be made.

Shifting capital expenditure to operational expenditure with reduced maintenance charges is a tangible benefit that can be achieved, he adds.

Mr Harber added: "As a cloud adopter you are buying into expertise in hardware and application maintenance and management.

"In addition to this you achieve scalability and flexibility which you cannot achieve with owned infrastructure."

According to the latest survey by 360 IT, fifty per cent of firms claim that cost savings are the most attractive aspect of adopting cloud computing, but ten per cent are too worried about data security to embrace the benefits.