IT firms are twice as bad as financial services organisations for using waffle and jargon. A survey commissioned by managed data service provider, Six Degrees Group, finds that there is a growing sense of discontent amongst both FS IT and business decision makers in relation to how technology service companies are promoting and selling cloud services.

Findings amongst IT decision makers include: 88 per cent feel that ‘cloud-washing’ by marketing departments at technology brands is an increasing problem; 92 per cent feel that their cloud service provider doesn’t understand their needs well and only focus on generic needs; 83 per cent say that cloud service providers could do more to demystify the cloud; 88 per cent of IT decision makers say that their cloud-computing provider is not listening to them; 24 per cent believe that cloud services are too rigid and inflexible; Only six per cent agree that cloud service providers understood their needs well; 20 per cent feel that cloud service providers help them understand the benefits the cloud can deliver through marketing; 48 per cent feel that there is room for improvement

Meanwhile, 48 per cent of business decision makers believe that technology companies are guilty of using too much jargon, compared to 26 per cent for politicians, 22 per cent for financial services and four per cent for lawyers; 28 per cent think that Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a new philosophy in railway management and 20 per cent think it is a new social networking concept; 12 per cent believe that Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a new road project and 12 per cent that cloud computing is a free WiFi service for internet access in public places.

Campbell Williams, group strategy and director at Six Degrees Group, comments, “The lack of service flexibility and confusing jargon is clearly having an impact on the reputation of the technology industry. Businesses are being told that everything is fine and promises are being made that issues can be solved. However, the problem now is that businesses no longer believe what they are hearing and the industry is losing credibility. Cloud computing has the potential to be one of biggest technology revolutions in financial services since the internet. Everyone’s talking about it and it is such a shame that businesses have to work so hard to figure it out. To some extent, every single business surveyed believed that they were a victim of cloud-washing. It is a big issue and needs to be tackled.”

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