The survey, which took in responses from around 100,000 customers of Ipswitch, the network management specialist, suggests that previous fears of moving into the cloud may have abated.
According to Ipswitch, whilst cloud computing has hit the headlines recently, many companies have been reluctant to move business-critical systems into the cloud owing to security concerns.
The firm adds that the research shows that security remains a consideration, with the number of companies looking to invest in cloud-based resources also improving.
Researchers also found 29% of organisations saying they are looking at a private cloud resource.
Ennio Carboni, the president of Ipswitch's network management division, said that the survey results show that 2011 could become the year that cloud computing reaches the masses.
"It's very telling that most prefer the idea of only moving into a private cloud first, which is perceived to be easier to manage and monitor in case of any problems", he said.
Carboni went on to say that moving to a cloud resource means that organisations have to manage, as well as migrate, a number of business-critical functions and applications.
This, he explained, means the functions and applications have to be moved to a whole new platform, a process that can cause significant challenges for those IT managers who don't have a complete picture of what is happening in the new cloud environment.