Techaisle SMB surveys in multiple countries are showing that SMB cloud computing non-users will increasingly get comfortable with the idea of Cloud based services once there are enough proof points in the market. The question remains though whether there are actions that vendors can take that would not only overcome the barriers for cloud adoption but compel SMBs to switch to or adopt Cloud services? Of those SMBs that are currently not using Cloud services, 43% state they will never consider Cloud services under any circumstance. For the remainder, 24X7 customer support (34%) is the key requirement that would compel them to adopt  and if the cloud services were provided by a trusted vendor (26%). And if the trusted vendor is a single vendor that has a broad catalog of services and takes responsibility for service then it is even better.

Techaisle conducted a quantitative survey with over 8300 SMBs and spoke with ITDMs in US, UK, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia and India to understand small
and medium business Cloud Computing market opportunity along with issues,
concerns, problems and challenges.

One of the questions that we asked to current non-users was: What vendor actions would compel you to use Cloud services?

Top reasons ranked in order of % of respondents for the US is given below.

There are obvious differences between SBs (1-99 employees) and MBs (100-999 employees).

There exists a strong correlation across all the points raised by SMBs. While most cloud computing vendors may like to pick up one or two issues and address them in their marketing messages but it may not have the most impact.  Vendors like Dell that have embarked on the journey to help SMBs adopt cloud solutions have the most to gain by addressing all of the above issues.

Other large IT vendors may soon follow, but at least if Dell executes on its plan it may take the lead. The last time we spoke with Dell, they had already implemented most of the points and had developed a roadmap to roll out the remaining.

Needless to say, vendors should take specific actions to overcome SMB Cloud Computing adoption barriers.

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle