Why consider cloud computing?

A poll I saw today on LinkedIn today was asking respondents for to select the main reason for considering a cloud productivity solution. Interestingly this was Sponsored by Microsoft:

This piqued my curiosity as I know what the drivers are for myself and most of my customers - its always cost! £$!

I realise that, mired as we are in the middle of a deep recession,  that is hardly a deduction that would make Sherlock Holmes brow bead with sweat.

Indeed the result of the poll so far (image only as a LinkedIn account is required to view) bear this out:

However what intrigues me is that once the initial cost savings are accepted they soon become secondary to other benefits that would fall under the second most popular option. 'Ability to get advanced functionality'. 

"Come for the savings - stay for the fringe benefits"

The warm fuzzy feeling of having battled the evil forces of operating costs and come out on top like some sort of Conan the Barbarian fades quickly and the mind looks at more ethereal benefits, namely easier and more advanced collaboration.

To work on a document or spreadsheet concurrently, giving little or no thought to the process is manna from heaven and a feeling that hangs around longer than the quick win of saving some moolah.

Then out of the blue, without so much as a 'by your leave' and certainly no install or invoice the software sprouts some new feature, widget or tool that make life easier. 

'It just arrived one day when I logged in' is something I hear a lot about. Its also something that makes consulting around any cloud suite of tools a challenge. The speed of involvement, especially with productivity tools is insane.

So where do you sit on that first question? If you have already transitioned to a cloud based productivity app is 'Cost Reductions' still the most important reason for staying in the cloud?