80% of CIOs feel ‘ripped off’ by cloud providers who make them pay a premium for what many consider basic support  

Cloud hosting provider, ElasticHosts, has released the results of a survey* that reveals dissatisfaction with support and service in the cloud sector. The survey found that 93% of businesses are now using the cloud in some shape or form; however, of those that do, three in four (75%) feel that the move to cloud has forced them to sacrifice service and support.

Indeed, a third of respondents (33%) believe they have sacrificed the majority or all of support by moving to the cloud. For example, 84% of cloud users feel cloud providers could do more to meet expectations on reducing the support and maintenance burden on in-house IT staff. While cloud users often have the choice to purchase a package that offers greater support, 80% feel that this is a ‘rip off’, and that premium services offer little more than what they would normally consider basic support.

“Many companies adopt cloud so they can take away the headaches related to managing their IT and reduce the burden on in-house IT staff. Therefore, the need for ongoing support and services will naturally be reduced, as it is outsourced,” commented Richard Davies, CEO of ElasticHosts. “Yet when using any service, you want to be able to ask questions – whether that’s to learn how to configure a server, or to query a bill –you should be able to do this without having to pay a hefty premium.”

The most common problems businesses encounter when using support and services from public cloud providers include:
· Slow response times to customer service queries – 47%
· Call handlers lack sufficient technical knowledge – 41%
· Use of automated phone lines/not being able to speak a human – 33%
· Complicated escalation processes – 28%
· Lack of 24/7 availability – 19%

Davies continues, “With many providers, if you have a technical question, you call up and after a very long wait are then forced to go through a long winded automated service – meaning you will quickly be in a bad mood. If you are then transferred to call handlers that don’t have the required technical knowledge to help resolve your query, and haven’t heard of your company before, your blood will begin to boil.”

“The industry should be doing more to help customers. Users are right to expect expert support included as standard with their cloud services. The first person that they contact for support should be an engineer with strong technical understanding of the service, not just a call handler.”