The public has their head in the clouds…

Everyone in the IT industry knows how amazing cloud computing is – it can cut overheads, introduce flexibility and make previously unobtainable services affordable for even the smallest of businesses. But with 60 per cent of the American public claiming to have no clue at all about cloud services, it seems that the sector’s enthusiasm is yet to turn into mainstream awareness.

It’s tempting to dismiss such findings out of hand – after all does it really matter if people don’t know how iTunes, Gmail and other products work as long as they actually do what customers want? The answer is a resounding yes, it does matter. Too many small business owners don’t understand the benefits of cloud computing and they’re missing out.

…and it’s because we’re not selling it right.

Will this ignorance kill the cloud? Probably not – after all it has been doing just fine without a widespread attempt at educating people as to what it is. But providers still need to examine the way they are communicating with potential customers and decide if talking about the cloud is the most useful way they can get their message across. After all, if you’re setting up a small business, what is going to appeal to you most? A salesman telling you something is based in the cloud, or a salesman telling you about how a particular product will save you money? Even if they’re offering exactly the same service, it stands to reason the salesman who focuses on the bottom line rather than a popular buzzword is more likely to close the deal.

It’s time the IT sector changed the tact when talking about the cloud – it won’t result in instant adoption, but it can’t hurt. If you need further proof, check out our infographic below – our current means of “selling” the cloud just isn’t working.

You might have to click the image to expand.

Infographic by the Webfusion VPS team.

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This post was put together by our friends at Webfusion, a UK-based web hosting provider and domain name registration company. Interesting stuff!

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VM Associates is a New York City cloud computing consulting firm. We help companies transition into newer, better, smarter software. Contact us to talk about your business, the cloud, and how we might help.