The Cloud Is a Big Deal Among Small Businesses

According to a report conducted by Microsoft, by 2014 an estimated four in ten small businesses are expected to employ multiple cloud services to replace or augment their on-premise IT resources. The report surveyed 3.258 businesses in 16 countries that employed up to 250 people, found that smaller companies commonly adopt an average of three services, while larger companies (with over 50 employees) utilize an average of four cloud services.

While the report did not account for search engines, search engine marketing, or include free and public cloud services like Twitter or Facebook, it did focus on applications – such as cloud delivered email. Unfortunately, many of today’s small businesses lack the money and resources to meet their ideal technological needs, and are looking to cloud services to fill their void. The ability to replace or augment your computer hardware infrastructures without spending the majority of your funds in equipment that is likely to be inadequate or obsolete in a matter of months, can give smaller businesses a big leg-up.

And the numbers don’t lie. Countless companies around the globe have already implemented at least one cloud resource; however, despite the rapid increase in customers, analysts believe it will be another three years before all Fortune 500 companies employ a single cloud service.

Despite all the benefits of the cloud, there are some concerns shared by small businesses. Here are some other commonly cited concerns about cloud computing:

• Resiliency – how often will you experience outages? Will it affect your mission-critical issues or deny you access to your email, records or other information? While this isn’t a huge concern with well-established providers, it is something to consider
• Tools – often cloud-based tools lack the same power as software applications. For example, Microsoft Office has employed a number of features for years that Google Docs still lacks
• Security – does your cloud provider collect your information? If so, how much does it collect? Is that information shared or used anywhere else?
• Data ownership and mobility – if you decide to cancel your cloud service, how can you retrieve all of your information? How can you be assured that any information left in the cloud will be destroyed? Can data be shared among different cloud services?
• Loss of data – There have been services in the past that have shut down unexpectedly, leaving customers scrambling to recoup their information. Can your provider guarantee there are policies and procedures in place to make sure this won’t happen?