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New Research Shows High Awareness of Cloud Services

Today, consumer cloud computing and communications are already a mature mass market, as seen from the ongoing rise of global public cloud services.

Thanks to cloud computing, several enterprises have been able to meet many business demands: to increase scalability, flexibility, communications and agility while saving on IT costs. Cloud computing, in fact relieves companies from the need to manage a complex infrastructure themselves, having to do ongoing maintenance and carry out costly upgrades; the responsibility is given to a third-party: the cloud provider. In other words, those who seek access to cloud-based applications, communications and data storage space, for example, can call upon a trusted, dependable and reputable provider for their data-center-hosted services located on virtual servers. The simplicity of the cloud system adoption has led to explosive growth in cloud usage.

The move to the cloud gives a lot of freedom in terms of data storage systems and communications services that are not based on-premises. Although there are several SMEs that are already taking advantage of online cloud storage service providers (opting, for example, to use vendors like Google Drive as an Android (News - Alert) native storage, SkyDrive as a Windows phone receptor, iCloud as an iOS platform storage, or Dropbox’s cloud-based storage system), there are some enterprises not yet on board. Is that because “People Are Still Confused about Cloud Storage?” This question was brought up in a Business Insider post recently. It notes that a study from nScreenMedia found a number of U.S. broadband users (90 percent) are aware of cloud services to store files; this is a great number considering how young the technology really is. Only 29 percent, however, currently use it, while 19 percent only heard about it but do not know much about the cloud. The percentage of users could actually be much higher, though, because some might be already using the technology without realizing it.

Despite a growing usage, awareness of cloud services remains low. Today there is no clear worldwide leader in the consumer cloud space, according to a new report from Business Intelligence. Although the nScreenMedia research shows cloud storage awareness usage high, it also finds that no single one of these services is winning out and this may be because each offers different features. The report also reveals how some SMEs might know little to nothing about the cloud and how to make it work as a solution for them. Businesses may still be unaware of the benefits of the cloud and have yet to check out the possibilities of a platform that works for them. In addition, perhaps some companies might be reluctant to use this technology fearing the risks of having personal or sensitive data deployed in multiple virtual private data centers (vPDC); these risks are related to privacy and data confidentiality as well as security of all info once data are in the cloud environment.

Using a cloud service does have both risks and benefits. Nevertheless, the cloud will likely continue to soar over the next few years as more consumers come to understand the possibilities this technology ensures and begin to trust more in the security and confidentiality tools offered by leading cloud providers. As we move more and more toward a diverse and dispersed workforce that requires anywhere, anytime access, the cloud is definitely the solution businesses will need to continue to prosper.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson