Depending on which segment of the market you speak to, perceptions about the business benefits of cloud computing vary greatly. For example, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), have expressed concern with regard to security, privacy and reliability issues. However, perceptions of cloud contrasts with actual experiences for SMBs, according to a recent Microsoft (News - Alert) study.
More than half (60 percent) of survey respondents said a key concern has been data security, and 45 percent were concerned that they could lose control of their data. In addition, 42 percent doubted the cloud’s reliability, according to the comScore (News - Alert)-commissioned “Small and Midsize Businesses Cloud Trust Study.”
The results reveal that there’s a gap between the perceptions of those not using the cloud, with the real experiences of those using one or more cloud service, according to Adrienne Hall, general manager, of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing unit.
“At the risk of sounding somewhat corny, we found several silver linings in the realities of people’s experiences after moving to a cloud solution,” Hall wrote in a blog post.
Some highlights from the U.S. study results include the following data points:
- 91 percent said the security of their organization had been positively impacted as a result of cloud adoption.
- 75 percent have experienced improved service availability since moving to the cloud.
- 70 percent have reinvested money saved as a result of moving to the cloud in areas such as product development and innovation, marketing, and expanding into new markets
Misperceptions about cloud continue to persist, including the notion that small businesses are flocking to the cloud in droves. A 2013 small business survey conducted by Brother revealed that 46 percent of small businesses understood the concept of the cloud “somewhat,” while 27 percent didn’t understand it well or at all. In addition, 42 percent of small business owners said that they aren’t using the cloud for their business.
Read more about those results here.
Edited by Jamie Epstein