Partner Article

UK Business Forecast: The Cloudy Future for SMEs

The cloud is now mainstream

Over the decade, the cloud computing market has evolved at an astounding pace, with uptake among small and medium sized businesses soaring. In the UK, “the cloud” now occupies a central role in the modern IT landscape for both SMEs and large enterprises alike. The key reasons? It enables flexibility, agility and scalability.

The latest research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) demonstrates that cloud has become mainstream, with cloud penetration among SMEs in the UK reaching an all-time high of 84 per cent. This marks a vast increase in usage since 2010, when this figure stood at 48 per cent.

Significantly, almost 80 per cent of these firms are using at least two cloud services, of which email, webhosting, collaboration services, commerce and online marketing services are among the most likely for businesses in the UK to base in the cloud.

But what exactly are the everyday benefits of cloud computing, and why are so many SMEs embracing it to meet their business needs?

Competitive advantages of the cloud

As the cloud continues to grow as a hotbed for innovation, it is the smaller businesses which will benefit most from the competitive advantages it offers.

Why? First and foremost, cloud services can be cheap and accessible to business of all sizes. An example is Microsoft Office 365 which provides a business with email, the Office suite and the ability to scale up or down, without any upfront cost.

For small and medium sized businesses cutting costs is usually the primary motivation for moving their operations to the cloud. As it stands, businesses in Britain currently save around 11 per cent from their use of cloud services, a figure predicted to rise to 19 per cent by 2020.

Cloud computing also enables businesses to shift from capital to operational expenditures. By making the move away from traditional in-house IT, firms no longer have to invest significant resources in hardware, but can opt instead to “rent” services from cloud providers. Thanks to “pay as you go” style services, businesses can easily increase their use of cloud as they grow, or decrease spend and temporarily scale down should business requirements dictate.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, it’s essential that small and medium sized businesses are nimble. They need fast, flexible IT systems and 24/7 access to IT support, along with increased resilience and reliability.

Deeper benefits of the cloud

The advantages the cloud delivers do not start and end with the bottom line. It also delivers a range of other business benefits. For example, the latest insight from CIF found that the majority of small and medium sized businesses value advantages such as higher levels of customer service and engagement, improved collaboration between departments and increased employee satisfaction.

For a small to medium sized firm, being flexible with working hours and empowering employees to work remotely can be transformative. Businesses standing to benefit from lower office overheads, improved customer relationships and a more motivated, loyal workforce. To facilitate this, employees must have access to vital data at all times, even when not in the office. This applies to all processes and communications, from emails and invoicing, to sales data and telephony. Businesses should consider using cloud-based productivity tools for email, calendar and file-sharing.

The cloud provides SMEs with a way to work anywhere. Whether at a desk or travelling, business can be confident that they will have access to the vital business data they need from anywhere. In addition, the cloud facilitates a more collaborative way of working. As information is stored and managed centrally, it is in sync. Employees can access and work in the same documents in real-time, without the need for hundreds of emails, sharing documents in attachments.

Concerns around the cloud

Concerns around security remain the key obstacle hindering cloud adoption among small and medium sized businesses in Britain, alongside concerns over the complexity of migration, data sovereignty and dependency on internet access.

According to the latest research, 70 per cent of UK businesses are concerned about data security in the cloud, an increase of almost 10 per cent since 2014. However, these concerns are not reflected in the reality experienced by cloud users, with the latest figures revealing 99 per cent of organisations have never experienced a breach of security.

The perception is that by storing company data “outside” the business, it is insecure. Yet cloud computing is generally more secure than traditional, on premise IT solutions. Established cloud providers comply with or exceed industry data security standards, and invest vast resources to employ leading security experts, securing their applications and developing their technology well beyond the means of any small business. Furthermore, thanks to cloud software the risk of losing confidential data on a mobile device, laptop or USB stick is also diminished - data is always protected.

A glance into the future

The future for the industry looks bright. CIF’s findings clearly show that more firms in the UK are making a move towards cloud to meet their everyday business objectives.

In 2015, more businesses are planning to venture into the cloud for the first time, and for those who already in the cloud, additional services are being added every day.

The latest research predicts that over the next 12 months, CRM, data backup and disaster recovery services, and data storage are the areas set to see the largest increase in adoption among SMEs. Small and medium sized business in the UK have reached a point where entire businesses can be run from the cloud. It’s now simply a matter of when they make the move, not if.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ash Patel .