Cloud service providers helping customers understand the new technology

Friday, July 16, 2010

Even with many companies and IT professionals turning to cloud computing as a cost-effective solution for networking, many in the IT industry are still confused by the new technology. As a result, many cloud computing providers have begun to explain the offering to customers in hopes of increasing the adoption rate, reports Light Reading.

The report highlights the importance of differentiating cloud computing from other hosted services, which telecom providers and the like have been offering for a while. Getting potential customers to understand the new technology is not like these previous offerings is a big step toward persuading them to adopt the cloud. Furthermore, customers need to understand they have access to their data on the managed network at any time, which is different than past hosted services.

While small- and medium-sized businesses were quick to adopt the technology, seeing it as an incredibly cost-effective solution, larger companies have had issues, especially pertaining to security. Persuading such companies remains a large challenge for service providers, which they have been working on.

A recent report from Hewlett-Packard found 70 percent of SMBs experiencing data loss go out of business within one year of the loss. Thus, for SMBs, data security is of the utmost importance, which should signal to skeptics the heightened ability of cloud services to protect such information.