RAMSBOTTOM-based Mark Stokes' Red Plane company is certainly taking off to help companies migrate their information technology into the cloud.

In a survey undertaken by the firm, 47 per cent of businesses polled who had not switched to such services said that they did not feel they had enough information to make the change, whilst 23 per cent said they were apprehensive about moving to something away from the safety of their own offices.

A further 12 per cent highlighted budget constraints, 10 per cent were worried about disruption to the workforce and eight per cent said they simply didn’t have time to think about it.

In total, 49 per cent of those polled said that they had or were about to implement cloud services within their business, which is below the UK cloud adoption rate of 69 per cent.

Mark, who works from home on Holcombe Road and who has a satellite office in Preston, said: "Whilst there is some adoption as companies realise the potential of cloud, there’s clearly a lot of work to be done in educating the wider business arena about the key benefits of introducing this technology.

"“One of the key benefits of cloud is that businesses no longer need to buy expensive hardware, software licences, or manage IT in house –—they can pay for what they use whether it’s e-mail, CRM, payroll systems, online backup, web hosting or team collaboration and can adapt the number of licences on a month-by-month basis.

“Cloud’s flexibility can help businesses move into new territories and alter their business model quickly, which is much more difficult if you’re restricted by in-house IT and having to wait weeks for a new server to arrive."

In response to the survey results, Microsoft Partner Red Plane is launching a new service that will focus on helping companies with 25 users or more to adopt Microsoft Office 365.

As well as full e-mail migration, the new service will include multiple training sessions and seminars educating customers on cloud and online safety and also includes the installation of a “starter” intranet to get companies going.

For more information: visit www.redplane.co.uk/onboarding