"Sage, always a cautious mover shall we say, has been on the brink of making an out and out commitment to the cloud for several years now but never seems to pluck up the courage to take the plunge," said Eager.

"It is paying the price - UK growth over the last few years has been laboured, something in the three percent to five percent range - and we can't see that changing without a dramatic shift in its strategy."

She added: "The alliance will move Sage's cloud developments forward but movement is slow and the approach is piecemeal. Sage makes a selection of its applications available via the cloud and Azure will add another, separate delivery platform. Sage's commitment to the cloud still looks half-hearted and it lacks a coherent strategy."