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| [August 26, 2010] |
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Cloud Services: From On-Premise to On-Demand
NEW YORK --(Business Wire)--
According to AMI's latest worldwide SMB Cloud Services Practice, there
are roughly 750,000 (12%) small businesses and 20,000 (24%) medium
businesses already using software as a service (SaaS (News - Alert)). However, looking
at today's SaaS users, 78% of SBs and 31% of MBs are leveraging a SaaS
plus on-premise mix (or hybrid model), while approximately only a third
of SaaS users are using an actual pure-SaaS product.
With an anticipated growth of up to $95 billion in global SMB
cloud-related spending by 2014, it isn't a surprise to see over half of
US SMBs looking into SaaS as a potential solution. Approximately one in
five US SMBs plan to use SaaS. However, AMI believes that SMBs are
easing into the concept of local plus cloud-based computing rather than
leapfrogging into a pure-play platform.
"Though cloud computing is seen as the next IT platform, the
consideration of SaaS amongst SMBs as the next favorable cost-saving
model is expedited by the macro situation we are in today," says AMI
Senior Associate Yedda Chew.
Almost two years since the downturn began; we still see 77% of US small
businesses (1-99 employees) and 84% of US medium businesses (100+
employees) very concerned with current market conditions. This marks a
31% and 81% year-over-year increase, respectively.
"In addition to this," noted Ms. Chew, "SMBs have their doubts,
particularly around the security of a 3rd party hosting
confidential numbers. But companies like Microsoft and IBM (News - Alert) who provide a
convergence of on-premise and SaaS are clearing these concerns for
interested SMBs who are trying to maximize the combination of cloud and
on-premise issues."
AMI believes the following applications will accelerate need for on
demand/cloud among SMBs from SaaS plus on-premise vendors:
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Email/messaging: Approximately, 134k of non-SaaS US SMB users
plan to adopt tis application, allowing companies like Microsoft (News - Alert), who
not only provide hosted solutions like exchange online in its BPOS
bundle, but also its ubiquitous 'exchange on premise', to live in
co-existence. This flexibility provides visibility to SMBs. And
eventually with the realization of the TCO of on-premise many have the
potential to migrate from Windows and .NET (News - Alert)-based applications to the
cloud.
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Online storage and backup (archiving): Approximately, 129k
non-SaaS US SMB users plan to adopt this solution, allowing companies
like Seagate/i365 (News - Alert) a local- and cloud-based disaster recovery backup
for SMBs.
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Document management and collaboration solutions: Over 125k US
SMBs are looking in this direction for a collaborative tool, to
companies like Microsoft with its product Sharepoint, or Yousendit as
a solution.
Now as the budgeting season is just around the corner for most SMBs,
economic headwinds are once again forcing businesses to revaluate a
scalable strategy using IT. This said, companies such as Microsoft, SAP
AG, and IBM, have a leg up with mixed local and cloud-integrated
solutions.
"These companies are enjoying the SaaS tailwind, and it will be these
companies with their hybrid model, which have a better chance of
breaking down the barriers of the potential 5.7M non-SaaS US SMB users,"
Ms. Chew says.
Upcoming Study
SMB preferences for cloud-based application bundles, their price
sensitivity and purchase channel preferences are further explored in
AMI's upcoming Worldwide SMB Cloud Services Study. This study provides
comprehensive coverage of: platforms and devices; IT infrastructure
services; business productivity applications; business
management/line-of-business applications; and unified communications.
Research will be available later in 2010.
For more information about AMI-Partners, our Global SMB Cloud Services,
or our other global SMB research, please call 212 944 5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com
or visit www.ami-partners.com.
About Access Markets International
(AMI) Partners, Inc.
AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and
business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market
intelligence - with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses
(SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses.
The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the
highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and "go-to-market"
solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management
team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and
business services sectors in established and emerging markets.
AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more
than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services
companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and
Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual
retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than
25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel
partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests
significantly in collecting survey-based information from several
thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global
SMB trends and analysis.
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