The increasing use of cloud services is changing who controls IT according to new research from Cisco and Intel.

The responsibility for those in charge of IT spending, procurement and planning is evolving due to the increasing employment of cloud services according to the research.

Within organisations, the IT responsibility and control is being moved to lines of business (LOBs) including HR, research & development and sales, and away from IT departments, as IT becomes a key business driver.

The report (The Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption Models) found that 59 per cent of IT decision makers who responded said that they expected that LOBs would increasingly control the IT spend, with 43 per cent saying that funding is already controlled by LOBs.

The research revealed that cloud currently represents nearly a quarter of total IT spend at 23 per cent, with expectations that this number will rise to 27 per cent by 2016.

Respondents said that the current shift in IT power dynamics is due mainly to the rise of BYOD programmes and the rise of the IT self-service model and IT as a service.

“This year looks to be the year that LOBs overtake IT departments in terms of spending. Almost every conceivable business function can now be delivered from the cloud as a service, empowering departments to seize control of their own spending instead of waiting for a nod from IT”, said Jo Laking, UK & Ireland cloud leader at Cisco.