Published on the 04/11/2016 | Written by Anthony Caruana
According to the 2016 SME Directions Survey, 52% of small business are already using cloud software…
However, Stephen Canning, CEO of JCurve Solutions, said uptake is being stifled by a number of misconceptions, singling out security and costs are held up as major stumbling blocks.
The survey of some 300 businesses in Australia covered a range of industries with retail, construction, finance, and technology the most highly represented. About a quarter of the companies had revenue of under A$250,000, another quarter were in the A$1M to AU$5M range with others ranging from $5M to over $50M. More than half have been in business for over a decade.
The survey covered topics ranging from government policy with 38 percent indicating they were “more confident” in light of the government’s Innovation Statement. However, they were far less happy with the government’s efforts at reducing administrative red tape and creating tax incentives for investors.
On the technology front, cloud solutions have been driven by the needs for mobility, better access to data in real time, and better integration opportunities between systems.
Out of the survey sample, 25 percent said they will never deploy a cloud-based solution with 10 percent saying they don’t intend to look at the cloud for another five years.
The reasons given by respondents were broad. Some simply said “I don’t like it”; others voiced concerns with security and costs.
One of the challenges the subscription economy faces is making an effective argument for why managing your own infrastructure doesn’t always make sense. Many businesses operate with the perception that they would prefer to manage systems and infrastructure themselves because they can’t trust cloud providers to either deliver good security or manage costs.
Canning explained: “Many who are first looking into cloud technology perceive it to have drawbacks in terms of security, but in reality there are significant advantages, such as the knowledge your data is kept safe in secure data centres, regularly backed up to offsite disaster recovery centres, high levels of encryption and robust password policies.”
However, a look through the responses – we looked at unedited comments provided by the survey respondents – revealed another significant factor.
Internet speed and availability is seen as a major issue. And, although it wasn’t specifically asked in this survey, there have been many other surveys that point to the lack of fast, reliable, reasonable cost internet access as a significant barrier to the use of cloud services.
