If you read the business press, you could probably safely conclude that every small to medium-sized company (SMB) in the country is using the cloud, at least in part, for some of their business functions, whether it be cloud-based solutions or simply to store data. A new study by FiberCloud, an IT infrastructure and cloud solutions provider, found that that assumption would be wrong.

The survey of more than 400 business owners and decision makers in companies with between 50 to 500 employees revealed that the numbers are far lower than we think. In fact, only 29 percent of SMBs have adopted the cloud. While this number may seem low, it’s important to point out that these companies are true believers. More than half of the respondents indicated that a majority of their business will be in the cloud by year end, and one third say they will run between 66 and 100 percent of their business in the cloud. Of the companies that said they have adopted the cloud, 75 percent have leveraged the cloud for the past 1 to 5 years.

Do we believe everyone who answers a study like this? We probably could have found a similar study the same time one year ago: 2013 was going to become the year everyone headed for the cloud. Intentions don’t always turn into actions, and SMBs sales and budgets have remained somewhat anemic with the lingering effects of a slugging economy.

Still, awareness of what the cloud can do for SMBs is most certainly on the rise, and as companies find it necessary to replace aging legacy equipment, they will find better value and more functionality in the cloud.

“Businesses of all sizes are increasingly embracing the cloud and the SMBs we surveyed are true believers; on a mission to put the cloud to work for them,” said Sue DeFlorio, COO at FiberCloud, in a statement. “We believe the cloud generates tremendous opportunity for our expanding network of MSP, VAR and IT reseller partners who already provide a variety of IT, networking and support services to SMBs. They are poised and ready to take advantage of the growing demand.”

Like in previous studies, the FiberCloud survey finds that one of the lingering perceived “downsides” of the cloud is security. While many of the decision makers say that the cloud has helped them increase security or compliance, they also indicate that they still have some security concerns although they maintain that the benefits outweigh the risks, adding that security concerns can be addressed by using the right cloud environment, said FiberCloud.