Cloud computing still has a long way to go before it is fully accepted, yet it will be the basis for much activity in the next 12 months, according to an expert.

Nick Garlick, the managing director of the Nebulas Solutions Group, explained that despite everyone getting excited about cloud computing, it is still an "immature" technology though it will see "dramatic growth" in small businesses in IT which are using clouds.

Regardless of this, very few will move to a public cloud model completely, with the expert adding that it is still unknown territory for most and throws up a number of security concerns.

"The hybrid cloud will dominate in 2010 - non-critical apps will go to the public cloud for cost and efficiency reasons but most organisations will still keep their critical business apps in-house," Mr Garlick added.

He continued that the biggest challenge for organisations in the coming year will be to seamlessly and securely integrate both in-house and cloud activities together, creating a dependable and cheaper resource for mission-critical applications.

Gartner recently listed cloud computing as one of its top ten areas for development during 2010.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).