Though many cloud computing service providers are trying to attract the small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to adopt cloud, the number of SMBs who are using cloud is not high. This might be either because of security concerns or unaware of this latest technology. The three main situations because of which small businesses not opting for cloud computing are
1. SMBs unclear about cloud computing
According “pcmag” website, the business survey held in 2013 reported that 46 percent of small companies know what is “cloud” while 27 percent of them are totally unaware of cloud. Of the small businesses who know cloud, 42 percent of them are not using the cloud computing for their business operations.
It is a different story that many small businesses are knowingly or unknowingly using the cloud services. For example, some email services, tool like Microsoft Office suit, storage services like Dropbox are all cloud services which many small businesses utilize.
2. Security concerns are making small businesses hesitant to move to cloud computing
Small businesses are worried about the security of their confidential information. For some small businesses, data is very important and crucial for the business. Adopting cloud computing might need to share the data with the cloud. Cloud can be accessed by any user. This is making small businesses hesitant to move to cloud computing.
Data are more safe when the business hires a private cloud and adopt hybrid services. But, this could be expensive for small businesses.
One of the surveys made by“pcmag” website in 2012 states that many small and start-up companies are always concerned about the profits. Profits can be achieved by cutting the cost wherever required. Using cloud computing services are always cheaper and saves lot of budget for the small business. Anyway security to the data is attained by engaging the providers or third party for maintenance and security of the business data.
3. Bandwidth issues to small businesses
Bandwidth is an issue in some geographic locations especially in rural areas. Hence there will be trouble in accessing the services and retrieving the data stored on cloud if the bandwidth capacity is not good. Hence small businesses are not opting for the cloud computing.
46 percent of small and medium businesses are getting limited bandwidth because of which they cannot find the storage space on the public cloud.
However may be the thinking of the small businesses may be regarding the cloud computing, the cloud computing providers are coming up with the more creative and innovative services which are easily available and accessible for the small companies. There are almost all the services on the cloud which are useful for the small and medium size businesses.
Though the confidentiality of the data is a major issue and can be rectified by which, small businesses could get many helpful services, a big majority of small and medium businesses are not showing interest in adopting clod computing.