Study: SMB cloud adoption rate to jump

A study recently released by hosting software developer OnApp reports that 49 percent of cloud service provider respondents expect the take rate of cloud services by small and mid-sized business owners to increase over the next 12 months.

OnApp said it commissioned the survey of cloud service providers to assess the hosting industry’s expectations for the cloud, and its view of the challenges it faces provisioning and selling hosted cloud services. The survey found that the most common reasons SMBs adopt cloud computing are:

A total of 27 percent of respondents expect the enterprise sector to be their primary source of growth. Just 18 percent see consumers as their greatest opportunity, which suggests that cloud service adoption may not see as much traction outside the business community.

The study showed that the strongest uptake of cloud services by businesses is anticipated from web and application developers, with 67 percent of cloud providers reporting this as the segment expected to drive the greatest growth. According to respondents already offering hosted cloud services, 42 percent expected to see growth from the broader IT sector, 39 percent from financial services and 30 per cent from retail customers.