SMBs looking to cloud computing

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

With the rising tide of overall market uncertainty, hackers and natural disasters, small- and medium-sized businesses are looking to store their data in the cloud. According to a recent study by AMI, SMBs are investing in cloud computing to help relieve pressures associated with an uncertain business environment, reduce costs, maintain privacy and improve flexibility.

As a result, the hosted storage market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent and eventually reach $270 million.

"Many U.S. SMBs are moving to the cloud to enhance existing packaged applications, such CRM databases," said Nichelle Grannum, survey research analyst at AMI. "Cloud storage provides these companies with the latest storage technology realizing a significant reduction in IT overhead due to decreased investment in physical storage devices on their premises."

Along with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, AMI also expects cloud storage to provide an accessible and secure place for companies to store its data.

Although some issues remain for cloud computing, the technology is maturing, due to more investments in cloud security and support services, increased adoption of cloud support and executives looking to the cloud for greater revenue, according to a study by Avande.