Know What 'Cloud Computing' Is

Consumers Don’t Know What “Cloud Computing” Is, Even Though They Use it All the Time - While the term “cloud computing” is still confusing to many, the activities that constitute cloud computing are being performed by the vast majority of consumers, according to the NPD Group.

According to a recent study from The NPD Group, a leading market research company, just 22 percent of U.S. consumers were familiar with the term “cloud computing,” which denotes software applications or processes that are accessed from the Internet, rather than on personal computer hard drives. While the term “cloud computing” is still confusing to many consumers, the activities that constitute cloud computing are being performed by the vast majority of consumers.

More than three quarters (76 percent) of U.S. respondents in NPD’s “Digital Software and the Cloud Report” reported using some type of Internet-based cloud service in the past 12 months -- with email, tax preparation and online gaming leading the way. Even so, the enormous usage of these cloud-based services has not completely supplanted desktop-computer-based applications: Nearly one quarter (24 percent) of U.S. consumers reported purchasing a computer-based software application in the past six months.

“Whether they understand the terminology or not, consumers are actually pretty savvy in their use of cloud-based applications,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD. “They might not always recognize they are performing activities in the cloud, yet they still rely on and use those services extensively. Even so, they are not yet ready to completely give up on traditional PC-based software applications.”

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