A survey conducted by SilverSky, a provider of cloud security solutions, reveals that 97 percent of respondents consisting of CIOs and IT security decision makers have increased, or at least maintained, their confidence in the cloud in the last 12 months. The survey also reveals that 24 percent of business functions are cloud-based.

Those are some great news showing CIOs’ confidence in the cloud. However, there’s a liver lining in the cloud’s growing reference: Despite going all out to the cloud, CIOs are still having their concern with regard to cloud security and integration. They also not sure whether they can maintain control over their data in the cloud.

It seems that the concerns are still outweighing the benefits of the cloud. This year is said to be the tipping point for cloud adoption; so, 2013 would be a great year – and a great chance – for cloud vendors to shape up; for them to improve their performance and offering.

As most cloud purchases are largely based on personal research, cloud vendors need to personalize their pitches to the CIOs; no more the near-obsolete pitch of “we can help you save money and become more productive”; give more reasons why your prospect should sign up with your service; help them to solve business problems.

And, oh, don’t forget to pitch tech evangelists, as they are also a major source for cloud service recommendations!

Check out this infographic released by SilverSky to accompany the survey they conducted for the big picture of cloud drivers vs. cloud barriers in determining CIOs’ cloud adoption (click to enlarge):

Via Visual.ly