As more companies move operations to the Cloud, both executives and IT professionals at those companies want to ensure a smooth transition. The majority of U.S. businesses are now using some form of Cloud computing, with more businesses than ever using Cloud-based website and storage hosting.

For most of these businesses, reliability is a top priority, with companies fully realizing the importance of 24/7 uptime and data backup in the event of a disaster. A study of UK senior-level IT professionals published on CloudTweaks provided insight to the issues concerning IT management today. When it comes to Cloud hosting, companies are primarily interested in reliability and uptime. Of the 104 people who responded, more than half said those two issues were of primary concerned. Security was important to 22.12 percent of respondents, while flexibility and scalability was important to 15.38 percent of those who responded. The lowest priority, coming in at 7 percent, was price.

Perhaps most interesting about the survey was what experts say in reading between the lines. Almost half of those polled did not mention reliability and uptime as most important, which an executive for the company hosting the company believes indicates the confidence business consumers now have in managed hosting providers. Reliability and uptime are now taken for granted by many, he believes.

As reliability becomes the norm for businesses taking advantage of Cloud hosting, service will become a more important factor. Reliability is, after all, what most consumers expect from service providers in every industry, from plumbers to cable companies. As this becomes expected, consumers begin to place a higher priority on the issues like the friendliness of customer service staff and a rapid response time on the rare occasion an issue does arise.

For your business, this is good news. It means the industry has reached the point where networks are strong enough to handle varying workloads. This allows businesses to focus on their own daily duties, knowing their networks are strong and thriving.