Cloud Computing: What Next for SMBs?
Cloud computing is no longer a name associated with big IT houses. The picture has changed dramatically in the past five years. From mere technology to supreme collator of different business procedures, cloud computing has evolved as the best resource for start-up companies, irrespective of geographical location. Additionally, non-IT companies have started to leverage cloud computing to run business efficiently. Most remarkably, suppliers and manufacturers can now work on a common global interface thanks to cloud computing. But what really makes cloud computing the technology of the future is its potential to create new revolutions in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) sectors.
SMB’s are predominantly relying on Software as a Service (Saas), facilitated by cloud computing in conjunction with data virtualization. The reason is the huge reduction in infrastructure costs that requires much less hardware components to be installed. According to a survey report by Gartner the SaaS market will increase to nearly $10.5 Billion by 2014, one of the biggest enterprise service growth stories in recent times.
Applications developed to support SaaS models are proliferating among enterprises worldwide, especially among start-up companies. A recent survey published by Techaisle reaffirms this growing affinity between SaaS solutions and SMB units, finding that SMB’s praised the core business productivity tools that cloud based SaaS models offer, probably due to cost savings.
in a shaky world economy, financial stability is of paramount importance to SMB organisations. There is a need to reduce initial capital investments made in infrastructure, and ensure that the business pays for only the resources it needs. Cloud computing makes it possible for SMB organizations to achieve this. If they were to follow a business model of their own by investing in unique proprietary resources, expensive redundancies would occur.
Recently, Microsoft sponsored a study of about 3000 Small and Medium sized business enterprises from among 13 nations. The survey conducted by Edge Strategies pointed out that SMB’s are ever willing to adopt benefits of cloud computing and want to maximise profits by adopting SaaS models to reduce capital expenditure. According to 54% of surveyed SMB units, SaaS has reduced expenses tremendously. 59% of surveyed organisations also reported increases in productivity. 69% agreed that their business future looks brighter due to the cloud.
Technical feasibility is definitely a reason why SMB’s are willing to adopt cloud computing on an unprecedented scale. Heads of SMB’s need not be responsible for hardware as well as software installation and maintenance, as they are only using an interface, which provides them with all necessary resources. Location independence, faster services and device independence are all reasons key reasons why SMB’s prefer cloud-based business models today.
It is not only big IT enterprises that benefit from cloud computing, but SMB’s aswell.
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About the Guest Author:
Mandira Srivastava is a fulltime freelance writer who specializes in technology, health and fitness, politics, and financial writing. Equipped with degree of mass communication and having worked for both private and corporate clients, I have experience meeting a wide range of writing requirements and styles.
