The majority of enterprises in the US plan to increase their spending on cloud computing by as much as 50% in 2016, according to a new study conducted by Clutch.

The survey also found that nearly 30% will maintain their current spending, and only 6% will reduce their cloud computing budget. Analysts at Clutch suggest this spending pattern indicates a growth opportunity for cloud service providers in the enterprise market.

Application deployment and testing low priority

The highest priority cited for enterprise cloud usage is file storage, at 70%, followed by backup and disaster recovery (62%), application deployment (51%), and application development and testing (46%). Although, only 33% put application development and testing at first or second priority.

Value from cloud infrastructure

Clutch surveyed 300 IT professionals who work at medium and large enterprises use a full-service cloud computing platform and found that 47% identified increased efficiency as the main benefit of cloud computing.

Analysts confirm that the value enterprises derive from cloud infrastructure directly influences spending patterns.

“Spending on the Cloud has increased because companies realise they are getting a lot of value,” said Jason Reichl, CEO of Go Nimbly. “The Cloud is building ROI [return on investment] faster and with better business accuracy, so companies are willing to reinvest in it every year.”

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.