Brits stash £2.3bn worth of digital possessions in the cloud

Every day we’re using ‘the cloud’ more and more - often unknowingly - as we transition and deposit our lives online – music, movies, emails, photos, family videos, and even work data – using cloud services. Just how reliant are we on these online services? How much of our information is held in or shared via the cloud. What are we typically sharing and hosting in the cloud every day? And could we be exposing ourselves and our ‘digital treasures’ to significant risks?

The study, ‘Generation Cloud’, commissioned by Rackspace in association with the centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London, reveals that a generation of British users - two-thirds of respondents (66 per cent) - rely on the cloud computing services every day without realising it. The exploration was supported by quantitative research into attitudes and behaviour regarding the cloud among 2,000 UK adults.

Key findings from the study include:

• As a group, Brits are hoarding at least £2.3bn** worth of personal possessions in the cloud (Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of UK adults estimate they have £200 or more worth of music, videos, photos in their personal cloud)
• 31 per cent of Brits say they have considered digital possessions as a potential ‘digital inheritance’ that they could leave behind when they die.
• 11 per cent have addressed their digital entities with care – e.g. they have left passwords to their digital treasures in their will - or are at least planning to do so
• Over half (53 per cent) have what they consider ‘treasured possessions’ in cloud services such as Hotmail, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr
• Two-thirds (66 per cent) of us have our head in the clouds – we are unaware we regularly use the cloud (even though 1 in 10 spend more than 5 hours a day in it – more than 76 days in total over a year***)
• Click here to view full press release and latest white paper entitled 'Generation Cloud'.