UPDATE 1-Phoenix IT on track, helped by shift to the cloud

* HI adjusted pretax up 2 pct to 15.1 mln stg

* Says H2 started well; confident on year

* To merge mid-market and business continuity units

(Adds details)

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Britain's Phoenix IT (PHIT.L) posted a 2 percent rise in first-half profit on Monday, as a shift to cloud computing boosted its data centre and hosting business, and said it was confident on the full-year outcome.

The IT company, which also provides business continuity services, reported first-half underlying pretax profit of 15.1 million pounds ($23.6 million) on revenue 13.4 percent higher at 138.4 million pounds.

It said the lines between its solutions for "normal" operations and "disaster scenarios" had become increasingly blurred as companies moved data and applications to remote shared platforms -- the cloud -- and it would merge its business continuity and mid-market services units on April 1, 2011.

Phoenix is paying an interim dividend of 3.5 pence a share, a 63 percent jump on a year ago.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Julie Crust)

($1=.6413 Pound)