SMEs in UK Rejecting Cloud

Research reveals that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises or SMEs in the UK are not only rejecting Cloud as a chief storage platform, but even doubting how they can possibly put it to good use.

It’s not surprising why a survey done by the Icomm Logistics, an IT support company, showed that just 13 percent of UK SMEs are actually utilizing cloud as their primary storage. Moreover, only 1 out of 5 or around 22 percent consider and believe that cloud may become their main storage in the future.

One of the predominant reasons for businesses to ultimately migrate to cloud is scalability. It is regarded as a key incentive, given the fact that vast SMEs in the internet space have become widespread as a spectacular global occurrence. On the other hand, Icomm’s survey of UK SMEs have gathered their insight on a less significant growth. This expectation further eliminates the key principle and motivation for cloud adoption.

In essence, the survey implies that SMEs in the UK are not struggling to cope with rapid data growth typically linked with a number of organisations migrating to the cloud. Icomm IT consultant Mark Lomas states that with today’s economic growth running at a slow and steady pace, data growth corresponds accordingly and that it basically just does not come out of thin air. He adds that there is always a connection between business performance and the amount of data that is produced.

Moving to the cloud requires investment in both time and money, and is not limited to the migration itself. It is likewise needed for feasibility studies and other research to gauge its potential benefits, and for many SMEs, time and finances are apparently in short supply.

Lomas said that distinguishing hype from reality is essential for a business to fully comprehend how to efficiently and effectively handle their storage infrastructure. More often than not, SMEs have a smaller scope for experimenting unlike the larger enterprises.

Testing new solutions entails the huge commitment of a business if they wish to bring about change, and can be costly in terms of finances and very time consuming. The cloud is indeed very likely to continue to grow in popularity, but ” SMEs are clearly in no rush to adopt it as their primary solution”, Lomas stated.

As claimed by the Icomm research, about two-thirds of SMEs remain intact with the SAN or storage area network solution for their storage needs, while about 16 percent make use of NAS or the network-attached storage, as well as the DAS or direct-access storage systems. Only 8 percent of survey respondents conformed to scalability as a principal concern, since their main interest is on costs and primarily geared towards performance.

Though SMEs have been found to reject cloud, it’s quite fully welcomed by larger organisations such as Aviva. The company’s director of global IT operations, Mark Hall, referred to cloud being absolutely at the heart of their business strategy.