Although most consumers regularly use cloud services, there is a lack of trust of service providers amongst 69% of UK adults, according to ‘Generation Cloud’ report from Rackspace.
The study also shows that security, privacy and transparency regarding where information is and what’s done with it are the top three concerns people have with cloud services.
According to the report, a key challenge for industry, as consumer awareness of the nature of ‘the cloud’ grows, is building trust through awareness raising, education and community engagement.
The study found that the majority of UK adults (53%) say they have precious possessions – including wedding videos, photos, emails, passwords and valuable documents, such as wills – stored online.
Almost a quarter (24%) estimate that they have digital treasures worth £200 or more per person, or £2.3bn in total across the nation, stashed in cloud services, the report said.
Although almost half of people surveyed (49%) are uncomfortable with storing valuable or confidential information online, they do it anyway.
The most common new social identity identified in the report, Head in the Clouds, represents the two-thirds (66%) of those surveyed who are cloud users but are unaware that they are using cloud services.
The e-Hoarder, representing 8% of those surveyed, uses huge amounts of cloud storage space, is afraid of deleting things, and is as digitally disorganised as they are in their homes.
The Cloud Sceptic, representing 1 in 5 (20 per cent) of UK adults, is reliant on cloud services but reveals this with a tinge of mistrust or regret.
According to the study, almost 3 out of 10 (29%) UK adults surveyed use cloud services for more than 2 hours on average each day, and more than 1 in 10 (11%) uses them for more than 5 hours each day.
The report shows that almost three quarters of UK adults (69%) store photos in the cloud, with 13% storing more than 500 photos; 86% store emails; nearly half (48%) store music tracks; more than one third (36%) store movies and videos; and 44% store financial or legal documents.
By 2020, 3 in 10 (31%) UK adults think that all their music will be stored and/or accessed online; 28% said the DVD would be a collector’s item; 25% believe they will no longer print photos; 14% said they wouldn’t own any physical books; 11% believe they won’t own a TV; and 16% believe their household appliances will access the Internet.
