London, 13 October 2011 - Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the service leader in cloud computing, today announced findings from a study into Britain’s ‘connected lives’. The survey indicates that British users could have at least £2.3bn worth of personal videos, music, books and photos stored in the cloud**. The survey also suggests that 31 per cent of UK adults have considered what they might pass on to family members in terms of what is now being defined as their personal ‘digital inheritance’.

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) - use cloud computing services without even realising it. The exploration was supported by quantitative research into attitudes and behaviour regarding the cloud among 2,000 UK adults.

Other key findings from the study include:

• 11 per cent of respondents 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’ stored with cloud services.
• 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 (11%) spend more than an average of 5 hours a day in it – more than 76 days in total over a year)

Fabio Torlini, VP at Rackspace, says: “The cloud is becoming more and more part of our everyday work and personal life. With the large investment so many UK adults seem to be making in digital treasures, it’s imperative that people consider the associated security and legacy implications. Businesses have a great opportunity now to shape consumer understanding of cloud computing and build trust. It’s important to remember that although cloud is for everyone, it’s not for everything.”

As part of the Generation Cloud survey, CAST identified four distinct cloud user profiles which include:

• Head in the Clouds: The most common new social profile which represents 66 per cent of online respondents who are cloud users but don’t think or don’t know they are.
• e-Hoarder: Representing almost one in ten of the respondents (8 per cent), these people are completely immersed in the cloud and use it to stash everything for safekeeping, and sometimes to keep their physical space tidy. They are as digitally disorganised as they are in their homes – never properly naming files etc. and have thousands of digital things which they are afraid to delete, just in case
• Cloud sceptics: This group represents almost one in five (20 per cent) respondents who, while they rely on the cloud, worry about control of their data and wonder who, or what, has their stuff
• 2020 Teenager: This group of pre-teen are digital natives and do not distinguish between hardware, software or data – cloud is simply a way of life. They also reveal the most about the future direction of cloud services and usage

2020 Future Forecast

Many respondents believe that the cloud will make CD and physical book collections a thing of the past for them. Predictions for 2020 include:

•   3 in 10 (31 per cent) respondents believe that all their music will be stored and/or accessed online, and they won’t own any CDs
•   28 per cent believe the DVD would be a collector’s item
•   25 per cent believe they will no longer print photos, just store them in the cloud
•   14 per cent said they believe that they wouldn’t own any physical books, just e-books
•   11 per cent believe they won’t own a TV, but would instead use their computer or similar device to access programmes
•   16 per cent believe their household appliances, e.g. their fridge, will access the internet and, for instance, automatically order more essentials when they are running low

For full copies of the study, interviews with experts and case studies please contact: www.rackspace.co.uk/generationcloud

ENDS
Notes to editors
*Based on survey results indicating that 24% of UK adult population hold no less than £200 worth of assets in the cloud and applying that percentage finding to the total UK adult population (population source: 2009 estimates from the Office for National Statistics).

** Terms such as ‘cloud’ ‘cloud-based services’ and cloud computing, refer to the management and provision of applications, information and data – i.e. computing power - as a service. Cloud services are usually accessed and provided over the internet, often at no cost in the case of consumer cloud services.




About the research
The CAST research team was immersed for two weeks in online and offline social spaces (digital ethnography) while using multiple and mixed methods to acquire data (Radial Research). As a method of digital ethnography, Radial Research is a unique approach designed by CAST researchers to rapidly obtain credible and transparent findings. Starting from an epicentre, in this case ‘the cloud’, the researchers follow lines of possibility found through crowdsourcing, interviews and online interactions to make visible spaces and subjects interacting with the cloud. Each site is distinct but interacts and intersects with others, such that, like the ubiquitous notion of the cloud, no site is ever completely without links to others.

15 participants were interviewed between 15 and 18 July and one year five class of nine and ten year olds. Three students were interviewed separately after the class.

For the quantitative research, Rackspace commissioned research house OnePoll to survey 2,000 adults across the nation to provide a representative sample of UK adults aged 18 years and over.

Rackspace Survey Reveals That Britons May Stash £2.3BN Worth Of Assets In The Cloud