Dive Brief:

• Nearly 75% of organizations plan to move additional systems to the public cloud this year, according to a new study from HyTrust.

• The report found Microsoft Azure was the number one choice among enterprises looking to move systems to the public cloud, with 32% of respondents planning to pursue the platform. Microsoft was followed closely by VMware vCloud Air (24%) and Amazon Web Services (22%), according to the survey of 500 business executives in the U.S. and U.K.

• Executives said disaster recovery topped the list (64%) for the type of workload they are most likely moving to the cloud next. 

Dive Insight:

Despite security concerns, 45% of organizations have virtualized mission critical applications, the study found, and another 38% are planning to do so. Most of the respondents said they are planning to move mission critical apps because software-defined data center (SDDC) strategies and deployment "ultimately benefit the bottom line," according to the announcement. 

"The potential of virtualization and the cloud was always undeniable, but there was genuine concern over security and skepticism regarding the processes required," said Eric Chiu, president of HyTrust. "What we find in this research is that the challenges are being overcome, and every kind of function in every kind of industry is being migrated."

An April report from International Data Corporation predicted public cloud growth of approximately 14% to $24.4 billion in 2016, while a May report from Synergy Research found that the overall cloud market grew by an astonishing 50% in the first quarter of 2016,

However, security concerns are still prevalent. When asked about top issues that prevent organizations from virtualizing all mission critical apps, the majority of respondents cited security concerns.

HyTrust also asked respondents in a variety of industries what plans they have to move additional workloads to a public cloud in 2016. Among all verticals, financial services, banking, insurance and trading was the highest, at 82%. Earlier this month, Deutsche Bank researchers said large banks are beginning to adopt public cloud services more frequently, and adoption could grow significantly in 2017.