The study, from Unisys, also found that support for mobile/end-user devices is the second most popular items on boardroom IT agendas.
The research is drawn from the latest Unisys poll, completed on January 24, and which asked people to name their organisation's biggest priority for IT investment in 2011.
Of the 262 respondents to the poll, 44% indicated that cloud computing would be their top priority. Researchers found that 24% named support for mobile/end-user devices as their primary IT investment focus.
According to Unisys, 17% of respondents cited cybersecurity as their top IT investment priority for 2011, whilst 15% said cost-cutting would be their top priority for the New Year.
Interestingly, an earlier and small poll carried out last month, and which took in 88 responses, asked about intentions to implement cloud computing.
80% of respondents said their organisation was planning some kind of cloud, with 45% - the largest group - citing a private cloud.
15% said their company was focusing on a public cloud, whilst a further 21% cited a focus on a hybrid cloud, which blends public and private elements.
Unisys claims that this preference for private clouds corroborates the firm's recently published prediction that enterprise adoption of the cloud would accelerate over the next 12 months, with private clouds initially leading the way.
Sam Gross, the firm's vice president for global IT outsourcing, said that the poll results are further evidence that organisations are no longer debating whether cloud computing makes sense for their organisation.
"They are now deciding how to get started and what type of cloud best fits their initial strategy", he said.