While small businesses lack awareness of cloud hosting, medium-sized businesses appear prepared to reap the benefits of cloud hosting, as revealed in a recent survey conducted by Rackspace. More than half of the mid-sized businesses surveyed are aware of cloud hosting with 57 percent of medium businesses in the US and 53 percent of medium businesses in the UK responding as such.

However, as compared to their medium-sized counterparts, the survey indicates that small businesses may be more confused about current cloud hosting technology and services, and less certain of how to utilize the cloud in the future. With over two-thirds of small businesses in the US and UK unaware of cloud hosting, this business segment appears poised to miss out on a revolutionary opportunity, that can be of great benefit, especially during this tough economic climate.

“The cloud can be a profitable technology for businesses of all sizes and the stats show us small businesses are not yet taking full advantage of the cloud services that are currently available,” said Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer, Rackspace Hosting. “Cloud is a proven technology which is unique in that it is not a one-size-fits all technology. There are different flavors of cloud hosting offerings which allow businesses to take advantage of the benefits of hosting in a very price competitive and flexible format which is an ideal mix for all IT departments, no matter their size.”

The survey also shed light on the potential future adoption of cloud hosting. Although only 14 percent of medium businesses in the US and 11 percent in the UK are already utilizing cloud hosting, 55 percent of medium businesses in the US and 42 percent in the UK have plans to use cloud hosting in the future. These respondents identified data storage and back up, replacing centralized computing and boosting server availability as some areas where they would leverage cloud hosting within their IT departments.

Within the US and UK small business markets, nearly 60 percent of the survey respondents have no plans to adopt cloud technology. It appears from these results that small businesses may be shying away from Cloud Hosting because they do not fully understand the added benefits over their existing hosting solution and, even more surprising; they may view the cloud as being cost prohibitive. This could be a detrimental mix up for small businesses in that they could benefit from the cloud’s scalability and cost efficiency, especially when coupled with their current traditional hosting configuration. A hybrid hosting solution can make for a truly powerful option.

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