Small Business vs. Enterprises: Who Uses The Cloud More?
Businesses of all shapes and sizes are turning to the cloud for a myriad of reasons. This includes small business and major enterprises of course. What is often lost in all of the cloud talk is how these businesses are using the cloud and the expected growth over the next several years.
Currently, it’s estimated that about 90% of businesses operate in the cloud, and nearly half of those organizations wish they had turned to the cloud sooner. Small to medium sized businesses, generally 1 to 250 employees, have about a 65%-70% adoption rate for the cloud, while big or enterprise businesses are around 50% adoption. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Smaller businesses have been historically more agile, able to make decisions more quickly. Larger businesses tend to have chains of command or a hierarchy of decisions makers. It often take longer to go through all the proper processes and channels before adopting new platforms or business plans.
When it comes to small business and enterprises and what phase of use of the cloud they’re in, about 20% of SMB’s are currently developing a cloud strategy while about 15% of enterprises are doing the same. About 30% of small businesses are currently working on their first cloud project, while more than a third of enterprises are in the same boat. When it comes to managing or deploying multiple projects in the cloud about a quarter of small business are doing so compare to about 30-32% of enterprises. Now, these stats are all within the same general percentage. Where the two differ is in heavy use of the cloud, heavy being defined as near reliance on the cloud. More than a quarter of small businesses have a heavy reliance on the cloud while only about 17% of enterprises heavily use the cloud.
Now, these statistics are telling in a few different ways. We mentioned of course the agility of small business and their quick ability to adopt new technologies. However, when talking about the nitty gritty what we really want to know is what benefits these organizations have reported. Why are all these small businesses moving towards the cloud a faster clip than their big boy counterparts? Well, there are several reasons:
- More than 50% of companies report a reduction in the amount of time spent on IT management
- Those same 50% reported needing to rely less on internal IT resources and personnel.
- More than two-thirds of these organizations report cost savings from the cloud, and that they’re able to reinvest those savings elsewhere.
- A whopping nine out of ten companies have reported increased security benefits
These are all great reasons to adopt the cloud in first place. A high return on investment, cost savings, high reliability, and reduced time worrying about IT issues. So, who is using the cloud better? Neither really. Small businesses turn to the cloud because they lack the expertise in-house to accomplish their loftiest technology goals. Enterprises often have the required resources and talent, but don’t know how to use them. They turn to the cloud for better processes, and of course less time worrying about possible mistakes that can cost a lot of time and money.
Cloud adoption is expected to rise even more in the next few years for small businesses and enterprises alike. As the cloud becomes more and more powerful it’s not a stretch to say that every business will be using the cloud in some way shape or form in the very near future. This not only bodes well for cloud providers, but the organizations using them to fulfill their business dreams.