As the adoption of cloud services expand, cloud providers face new challenges and opportunities.

In order to identify the most significant challenges, the tech practice of PwC Germany surveyed more than 50 German-based cloud providers. The results illustrate how cloud providers are meeting current demands. It also identifies the risks and challenges that these providers are facing and what they need to do to make cloud usage successful for their customers and profitable for them.

While survey respondents were located solely in Germany, the challenges and opportunities identified are pertinent to cloud providers the world over.

Cloud computing allows users to procure their IT services on a flexible basis according to their needs.

This enables IT to be flexible and react quickly to accommodate the needs of the business world, resulting in cost savings and a more effective use of available capacity. This lucrative opportunity is, however, not without its risks and challenges. Companies need to keep these risks in mind in order to reap the full benefits of cloud computing.

Three issues in particular stood out in the survey: information security needs to be guaranteed, data protection ensured and compliance achieved. According to those interviewed, finding solutions for these issues represents a significant challenge for the providers and is an important factor in achieving customer satisfaction. Just under three quarters of the providers surveyed expected that the percentage of cloud services in their German total business would grow. The respondents that did not expect any difference in sales were almost all smaller providers. None of the respondents expected sales to drop.

The report also highlights steps that cloud providers can take to make the use of cloud services successful and profitable for their customers.

The full report is available at www.pwc.com/de/en/