There exists no shortage of cloud solutions. The industry cloud, which focuses on vertical industries, continues to grow in popularity with businesses.

Why are businesses embracing these customized industry cloud services? A recent TechRepublic Premium wanted to find out.

The survey asked the following questions:

• When do you plan to adopt industry cloud services?

• Why types of industry cloud services are you using?

• What are the most important factors in choosing an industry cloud service?

• What are the positive outcomes you’ve experienced by using an industry cloud service provider?

• What are the negative outcomes you’ve experienced by using an industry cloud service provider?

• What is your annual budget for industry cloud services?

Thanks to specialized applications and intense focus, industry cloud has won over tech professionals. More than half of the survey respondents (64%) either already adopted industry-specific cloud services, or they plan to in the next 12 months. Just 18% of respondents didn’t believe they would ever adopt industry cloud services.

Of those respondents who adopted industry cloud solutions, 54% use it for data storage and governance. Other areas gaining traction include tailored billing and invoicing services (28%), industry-specific customer service functions (26%), and core manufacturing and processing functions (22%). Interestingly, only 28% use an industry-specific cloud service to take advantage of the industry expertise of cloud vendors.

Industry cloud users noted many benefits. For the majority of respondents (61%), the most positive outcome of adopting industry cloud services was the ease of management and administration. While, 54% of respondents liked the data storage and protection practices available on the cloud.

However, not all of survey respondents experienced positive outcomes from their industry cloud service provider. Forty-one percent of respondents reported that they could not easily integrate an industry cloud with their other business services and systems. Another 37% faced challenges with cloud adoption and migration.

To find out more about industry cloud and read all of the survey results, plus analysis, download the full report here: Industry cloud report: Businesses adopt industry-specific cloud solutions.

This report contains all the data, plus analysis, from the survey. For details on future TechRepublic Premium surveys, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.