More than half of UK companies do not understand the idea of Cloud Computing, according to a new study by Rackspace which dound that 57% of UK firms surveyed were ignorant of the concept of Cloud hosting.
When it came to defining Cloud Computing,the most popular response among UK respondents, with 43%, was: ‘remote and multiple servers accessed via the internet’, followed by ‘applications via the internet’ (31%). ‘Virtualisation’ (14%) and ‘online storage’ (8%) also figured in the responses from UK companies.
Yet despite this apparent ignorance, UK firms are planning to plough ahead with 36 % of businesses in the UK a‘planning or considering using it'. Cost (25 %) was the largest deterrent for UK businesses, followed by ‘untested, new technology' (14 %) and reliability (15 %). The survey also discovered that 27% of UK businesses ‘don’t know how they would use Cloud hosting as part of their IT mix’.
“Cloud technology is ideal for the current economic climate, but it is vital that businesses understand how it can best serve their organisation,” said Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer at Rackspace Hosting. “At Rackspace we want to provide clearer guidelines on how they can get the most out of this technology as a matter of urgency. Cloud is going to be the hot business topic for 2009 and it is not just IT folk that will need to understand the benefits it brings but people across the business.”
Cloud hosting can provide extra capacity faster and at a lower cost than traditional hosting, argues Rackspace, while traditional hosting also needs more pre-planning and does not have the cost advantages of using shared resources that are managed automatically by software. These can be as high as, for example, cutting storage costs by up to 80%. This is important as the study found that lower costs is the most likely reason for adopting Cloud hosting in the economic downturn
The survey quizzed 1,500 companies - 600 in each of USA and UK and 300 in Netherlands. The sample was split 750 SMBs (up to £15m/$25m/€20m) and 750 mid-sized businesses (between £100-£500m/$150m-$750m/€140-€700m).
Rackspace has launched a Cloud Clinic website dedicated, it says, to answering enterprise customers' questions about Cloud computing. It features FAQs, video presentations, links to other resources, a guide to successful Cloud implementation, and a 'top 10 Cloud myths' section
"It is becoming compelling for businesses to move a big part of their IT into The Cloud. It is creating all sorts of upheaval, excitement and confusion, so we are trying to clarify it for people," said Moorman. "We are trying to help people figure out how you should use Cloud tools, and how it might go in the future. People are a little bit paralysed because there is so much noise."
