39% of SMBs Will be Buying Cloud Services by 2014, Study Suggests

Some 39 percent of small and medium-sized businesses expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 percent from the current 29 percent, a study conducted by Edge Strategies has found. The study also found that respondents expect to almost double their use of cloud services over the next three years.

The global survey of 3,258 firms that employ up to 250 employees included respondents from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.

Collaboration, data storage and backup and business-class email are some cloud-based services that hold promise for channel partners and other sales entities. SMBs paying for cloud services will be using 3.3 services, up from fewer than two services today, over the next few years, the study suggests.

The larger the business, the more likely it is to pay for cloud services. The study suggests 56 percent of companies with 51 to 250 employees will pay for an average of 3.7 services within three years.

Within three years, 43 percent of workloads will become paid cloud services, but 28 percent will remain on-premises, and 29 percent will be free or bundled with other services.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/emea/presscentre/pressreleases/MSSMBCloudAdoption.mspx