Cloud talk is well, up in the air. In this case the question is how many companies will realistically make a move and when? In a survey Microsoft has learned that about 39% of Small to Midsized Businesses (SMB) will make some transition to the cloud within the next three years.
What Kinds of Cloud Services are in Consideration?
The findings indicate that companies offering services such as collaboration, data storage and backup, or business-class email will grow.
Some key findings include the following:
| • | Those SMBs paying for cloud services today will be using more services, at least 3 services, which is up from less than two services today.
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| • | Who will an SMB choose for the provider of the cloud service? It looks like past experience with support from a service provider may be a determining feature of selecting a cloud service provider. The numbers indicate that 82% of SMBs will buy cloud services from a provider with a local presence is critical or important.
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| • | Size may be a factor in determining whether to purchase cloud services. With larger businesses, they may be more likely to pay for cloud services. The survey showed that 56 percent of the companies with 51–250 employees will pay for an average of 3.7 services within three years.
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| • | Within three years, the workload breakdown should look something like this: 43 percent of workloads will become paid cloud services, 28 percent will remain on-premises operations, and about 29 percent will be free or bundled with other services.
The upshot is that IT operations will be looking different within the next three years, just as IT operations changed when networks entered the field, and then followed by the Internet. The migration to cloud services will carry a big load since the onsite servers will have to be maintaned in a new way. |
Source: Microsoft
Cloud computing is much profitable for the SMBs. The CC market is still unexplored and any company that makes an early entry in it will have a great advantage.
What possible advantages does Cloud have for individuals?