I stumbled upon a site the other day that posted a recent study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. 

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Cloud.Memo.pdf[1]

The study states that 69% of Internet users are invoking Cloud Computing applications today, meaning they use some kind of Web-based application like webmail, photo-sharing sites or other Web-based software.

Wow, really? 69%? That seems high. But, as you dive into the broad scale adoption of webmail and the proliferation of photo-sharing sites, that number makes more sense.

In the study, Ray Ozzie of Microsoft says that cloud computing would enable “a personal mesh of devices – a means by which all of your devices are brought together, managed through the web as a seamless whole.” Sounds pretty good. Anytime, anywhere access to what you want, how you want it.

But there was an even more interesting result from the study — only 5% of Internet users are using the Cloud to backup files and their hard-drive online. The majority uses Cloud Computing applications, signaling a need and value, yet only 5% use the Cloud for backup applications? Why is this number so low in the US?

The low percentage is certainly not for an absence of solutions. There are bunch of companies out there offering online backup services. Today, you can add another – Qwest. We’ve partnered up with Symantec, a trusted name in computer security, to bring our high-speed Internet customers Qwest Personal Digital Vault™. It’s pretty straight forward: 2GB FREE to all Qwest High-Speed Internet® customers, and there are pay tiers available for those that need more.

So, why would Qwest offer a service that seems to be readily available today? I think the real question is; if the solutions are so readily available, why isn’t anyone using them?

There’s a great lead-in statement in one of the studies sections: “Cloud users to Providers: let’s keep the data between us.” I think this is the issue. It’s about trust. For online backup to become more mainstream, Internet users have to trust the Cloud and, in turn, move their valuable content into the cloud.

Did we just revolutionize Cloud Computing? Hardly. But, we do believe in it, and we believe that customers trust us, our network and Symantec. With our network and datacenter investments, our ability to support the advancement of Cloud Computing and user adoption is in our wheelhouse.

Today we took another step. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

- Scott Russell

Qwest Product Director