SMB cloud adoption has trailed behind enterprise rates for some time. Whether due to inadequate resources, overbearing security requirements or a simple misunderstanding of the technology, the small and midsize market has only recently begun to make significant cloud deployments. What's been holding them back? And better yet, what has changed to spark the uptick in adoption?
Limiting Factors
The promise of infinitely scalable computing resources drew enterprise organizations to the cloud with surprising fervor. On the other hand, SMBs looked at cloud adoption through a much more tempered lens. According to Forbes, the number-one IT challenge for small and midsize businesses that are considering cloud computing is budget constraints. Though public cloud deployments tend to squeeze the most out of cost for performance on large deployments, SMB deployments are often too small to maximize savings.
The next biggest offender on the list of IT challenges is mobile security. Sure, cloud solutions can provide a great platform for SMBs to secure their mobile data in a central manner. But it can be a scary prospect for these businesses to host their data on public servers.
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Coming of Age
Ultimately, SMBs want to fully realize the benefits of public cloud solutions (scalability, management and agility) while taking advantage of the security and ownership that private clouds provide. As such, it comes as no surprise that Arvig lists hybrid clouds as the top cloud trend for SMBs in 2016.
The maturation of hybrid cloud deployments has greatly contributed to the success of small to midsize businesses in the cloud arena. These companies are finding that they can use hybrid solutions to decrease their traditional datacenter footprints while increasing their data agility. Within the confines of a private cloud infrastructure, apps can be intelligently deployed from public hosts to maintain speed and accessibility while data components reside securely.
The real key factor behind increasing SMB hybrid cloud adoption is the near-perfect balance of technology maturity and SMB innovation. After all, hybrid clouds are finally reaching the point where integration, cost and security are no longer prohibitive. As a result, SMBs are quickly discovering new freedoms associated with dynamic service and app provisioning. These services can support more users more efficiently (with less management). By streamlining operations in this manner, businesses can increase their productivity.
Forbes projects that 78 percent of American small businesses will be fully adapted to the cloud by 2020. So why is there an increase in SMB cloud adoption? Put simply, the hybrid cloud solves the top business and IT challenges by increasing profitability and budget constraints respectively.