A new survey of more than 1,000 consumers conducted by Webfusion revealed a general lack of understanding about cloud computing. While 33.8 percent claimed they clearly understood the term, 28.5 percent did not, and 18.3 claimed only limited understanding. When asked whether Dropbox, iTunes and Gmail were cloud services, about a third of those surveyed correctly said they were, but a nearly equal number said none of the three were examples of cloud computing.
“The research shows that providers of online services to the consumer market should be very wary of using the word ‘cloud’,” said Thomas Vollrath, CEO of Host Europe, the parent company of Webfusion. “Most users don’t understand the technicalities of what defines a cloud service, and probably care even less.”
Although the survey was conducted in the U.K., similar studies in the U.S. have returned similar results.
