2010 to be the year of the cloud for UK businesses?

2010 is set to be the ‘year of the cloud’ for UK SMEs, following a huge change in outlook over the past 15 months, but many are still failing to implement formal strategies to help safeguard their businesses, according to a report released by business ISP, Easynet Connect, available for free download from here.

Compared to a similar report issued by Easynet Connect in October 2008, the report shows a significant increase in small businesses using or planning to use cloud computing within 12 months (22 percent at the end of 2008 vs. 50 percent at the end of 2009). Those with longer term plans to deploy cloud computing within five years has gone up by approximately two thirds, rising from 47 percent in 2008 to 73 percent in 2009. In addition, the number of businesses stating they would never move into the cloud has halved over the last 15 months from 53 percent to just 27 percent of those surveyed.

Despite the huge move to the cloud, the last 15 months has seen little increase in the number of businesses putting in place safeguards such as increased security and more reliable Internet connections. For example, 85 percent do not plan on taking extra security measures and 71 percent do not have any formal strategy in place for implementing cloud computing. In addition, over 80 percent of businesses are not planning to increase their Internet bandwidth and the majority of respondents (80 percent) are still using asymmetric connections such as ADSL broadband as part of their connectivity packages, as opposed to symmetrical connections such as SDSL and leased lines. This means many businesses may be lacking the bandwidth and, more importantly, the upload speeds needed to fully support cloud computing.

•Date: 6th Jan 2010 • Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
Rate this article or make a comment - click here