UK's media focus on 'cloud' catches second wind

Cloud computing has been on the radar of the UK media for some time, but in general, adoption of cloud technologies seems to have been slower to gain acceptance in the UK and Europe than in the US and this has been reflected by the media.  But now it looks like we may be reaching a tipping point.  Analyst firms put the size of the market for cloud computing in the $100s billions, with Gartner predicting that by 2012, 20 percent of companies will not actually own any IT assets, the tech behemoth HP is getting behind cloud, and in the UK, we have the launch of a publication dedicated to Cloud Computing,  Cloud Pro.

Part of the Dennis Publishing family, the launch of Cloud Pro highlights not only the increased media interest in this area, but also signals the fact that this technology is gaining traction.  Cloud Pro will be focusing its coverage of the topic not on technology driven stories, but on business strategy as companies begin to realise the impact the technology could have on their bottom line. The publisher and editor of Cloud Pro felt that UK tech titles were still very focused on the technology and they plan to cover 'cloud' from a stronger business perspective.  The publication will target C-level executives and technology department managers explaining cloud without being too technical and using cloud jargon. Cloud Pro also aims to highlight real world experiences from the various professions impacted by cloud from lawyers, accountants to CIOs.

Dennis Publishing already publishes other tech titles including IT Pro, Channel Pro and PC Pro and they all write about the cloud. "They do cover cloud but it's part of a range of technologies that these publications cover," Max Cooter told us in an email.  "Cloud Pro will have a different brief: it will be aimed at C level executives, as well as techies, as these will be the people who make many of the financial decisions. Not only will Cloud Pro be covering the business decisions but we will also go into more depth on some of the analysis."

There are a few UK titles that write about cloud topics including BusinessCloud9, which the Cloud Pro publishing director Jon Westnedge described as the closest to Cloud Pro in focus, but the number of UK cloud publications and blogs is still quite small when compared to the US. That is beginning to change. As Silicon.com wrote at the end of last year in a Cloud Computing special report, the "hype is becoming a reality".