Rackspace Hosting, the open cloud company, reported in a study released today that 88 per cent of cloud users point to cost savings. In addition, 56 per cent of respondents agree that cloud computing has helped them boost profits.

The study, conducted by Rackspace Hosting with support from Manchester Business School and Vanson Bourne, found that 88 per cent of UK and US business respondents using the cloud have saved money. 62 per cent are reinvesting these savings back into the business to do things like increase headcount, boost wages and drive product innovation. Sixty eight per cent also say the use of open source cloud is on the increase.

The study of 1300 organisations in the UK and US¹ also revealed:

• 56 per cent have been able to increase profits through using cloud services
• 49 per cent have been able to grow their business through use of the cloud
• 60 per cent say that cloud computing has reduced the need for their IT team to maintain infrastructure, giving them more time to focus on strategy and innovation.

Open standards an increasing factor

The research indicates that the US is leading the way in the deployment of open cloud (70 per cent) compared to the UK (42 per cent), while both see open standards as an increasing factor when deploying cloud computing. Seventy four per cent of the US organisations are seeing their use of open source cloud on the rise (57 per cent in the UK), while 86 per cent feel that open standards are boosting their ability to innovate, compared to 79 per cent of UK respondents.

Reinvesting savings back into the business

Importantly, the majority (62 per cent) of these firms are reinvesting the money saved through cloud computing back into the business. One priority for reinvesting this cash is improving and expanding product and service innovation (stated by 48 per cent). However, 25 per cent of respondents also reinvested money into boosting wages and bonuses (34 per cent in the US; 15 per cent in the UK). The survey points to a potential boon for jobs with 22 per cent employing more people with the cash saved from cloud computing.

Boost to profits

It’s not just savings that the survey identified, nearly half of UK and US businesses surveyed (56 per cent) agreed that cloud computing has directly helped to boost profits. Furthermore 49 per cent stated that cloud computing has been a key factor in enabling their company to grow its business (58 per cent in the US; 40 per cent in the UK).

Benefits for start ups

The study also pointed to powerful cloud benefits for startup businesses. A massive, 90 per cent of businesses that have started in the last three years say the cloud has made it easier to set up their business. Furthermore, over half of the startups surveyed (52 per cent) said they wouldn’t have been able to afford on-premise IT resources at the time they wanted to launch. This was explained by Garry Prior, Co-founder of start up, Taxi for Two “Without the ability to run our infrastructure on the cloud, we simply couldn’t afford to set up business.”

John Engates, Chief Technology Officer, Rackspace, says: “The study shows just what an important impact cloud computing is having on UK and US businesses. It’s particularly interesting that, despite the ongoing economic backdrop, half of businesses on both sides of ‘the pond’ are actually increasing profits and growing their business through use of the cloud. This includes investing in headcount and wages as well as driving further innovation.”

Dr. Brian Nicholson at Manchester Business School says: “Cloud computing is heralding a boon for startups at a time when they are most needed. By making high end computing resources available on flexible payment terms at the push of a button we are significantly reducing the level of investment required to set up shop. It has arguably never been easier to start a business and much of that is down to the flexibility of cloud computing.”

ENDS

About the research

Quantitative research was conducted by Vanson Bourne of 1300 companies in the UK and US (split equally) during December 2012. Manchester Business School carried out qualitative interviews with companies that use the cloud by telephone during December 2012 and January 2013. You can find the report here

About Rackspace

Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 205,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company offers choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock in. Rackspace has been recognised by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and is featured on Sunday Times list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.”

Rackspace Limited, the UK subsidiary of Rackspace Hosting®, is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world. For more information, visit rackspace.co.uk.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements about historical results or third party data that may suggest trends for our business or industry; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of Rackspace for future operations or growth; any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the items mentioned. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected growth or success may not materialize because of the lack of acceptance of cloud computing in the marketplace or specifically, Rackspace’s cloud computing services, Rackspace's failure to execute on its operational plans, rapid technological changes that adversely affect the demand for Rackspace services, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed with the SEC on November 7, 2012. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

¹ 650 of the respondents were located in the UK and 650 of the respondents were located in the US