UK firms baffled over cloud technology

The concept of cloud hosting is yet to filter into the psyche of the average UK business, survey finds

According to Rackspace, 57 per cent of UK businesses are unaware of cloud hosting

Despite cloud hosting recently becoming a hot topic in the channel, more than half of UK businesses are unaware of the term, according to web hosting vendor Rackspace.

A survey by the vendor found 57 per cent of UK businesses are unaware of cloud hosting, with 43 per cent correctly defining it as "remote and multiple servers accessed via the internet".

UK respondents also believed cloud hosting to be "applications via the internet" (31 per cent), "virtualisation" (14 per cent) and "online storage" (eight per cent).

Some 27 per cent of UK businesses admitted to not knowing how they would use cloud hosting as part of their IT mix.

Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer at Rackspace Hosting, said: “Cloud technology is ideal for the current economic climate, but it is vital that businesses understand how it can best serve their organisation.

“At Rackspace we want to provide clearer guidelines on how businesses can get the most out of this technology as a matter of urgency. That is why we are launching a new cloud clinic web site.”

More than a third (36 per cent) of respondents said they are "planning or considering" using cloud hosting. Reasons for not adopting it were cited as cost (25 per cent), it being an untested, new technology (14 per cent) and reliability (15 per cent).

Lew concluded: “Cloud is going to be the hot business topic for 2009 and it is not just IT folk who will need to understand the benefits it brings, but people across the business.”