One in three SMEs to use cloud in next 12 months

A study has found that nearly one in three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) plan to use cloud computing in the next year, more than for any other emerging technology.

CompTIA, an IT industry non-profit trade association, surveyed 400 IT and business professionals in UK SMEs about their views on emerging technologies.

Cloud computing was followed by mobile solutions (27 per cent) and social media (26 per cent) as the technologies with the highest planned adoption rates.

Only 18 per cent of SME's stated that they were currently using cloud computing, with 93 per cent of these companies satisfied with the result. Some 39 per cent of SMEs currently using the cloud said cutting costs was their main motivation.

However, of the SMEs that plan to implement cloud computing, 37 per cent are doing so because of better functionality through remote access of applications and data.

Virtualisation and unified communications (UC), which tie multiple forms of communications together over the IP network, had low adoption rates than the cloud. This may be because of unfamiliarity and a lack of resources, according to the report.

According to the study, around a third of SMEs are planning to purchase tablets for employees but this is because of security fears over employee-owned devices rather than SMEs being convinced that tablets will naturally replace other devices.

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