State of the Cloud 2024 - Small Businesses

Description

Continuing the Digitalization Journey

Small businesses (10-99 employees) perceive the cloud as essential to success. While they lag behind larger enterprises in technology adoption, they plan to invest in technologies such as AI/ML, cloud, and automation to achieve their business goals. In the 2024 Frost & Sullivan Global Cloud Decision-Maker survey, small business respondents shared their perceptions, purchase decisions, and plans related to cloud, IT, and AI. Key findings include:

AI is considered a strategic investment to help achieve business goals. Top drivers for AI investments include improving operations, enhancing the employee experience, and boosting innovation.
The percentage of small businesses using public and multi-cloud infrastructure will double by 2026; the percentage using hybrid cloud will triple. At the same time, small businesses plan to retain infrastructure on-premises, primarily to support legacy applications.
Small businesses turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to fill expertise gaps, especially in application development, data migration, and data management.

This report offers small businesses and IT service providers a glimpse of the near future for the cloud and AI markets.

Product Code: PFUJ-72

Research Objectives and Methodology

Respondent Profile - Small Businesses

Key Findings

Key Findings

Cloud Adoption is Perceived as Essential to Small Business Success

Small Businesses Prioritize Growing Revenue & AI Adoption
Hybrid and Multi-cloud are Essential For Business Success
Small Businesses Explore all Cloud Types
Top Reasons for Deploying Apps in the Public Cloud
Security and Costs Pose Challenges

On-Premises Data Centers Remain Integral to Small Business IT Strategies

On-Premises Data Center Use Trend Among Small Businesses
Small Business Employees Prefer the Familiarity of On-Premises Solutions

Small Businesses Will Slowly Migrate Legacy Apps to Cloud

Migrating Workloads to the Cloud
Modernization Approaches for Legacy Workloads

Small Businesses Use Third-Party Services to Manage and Optimize their Cloud Environments

Third-Party Services to Support Small Business Cloud Strategies
Quick Delivery, Efficient Workload Management Top MSP Benefits

Small Businesses Embrace AI

Small Businesses Begin their AI Journeys
AI Supports Better Operations & Talent Management
Small Businesses Deploy Apps Integrated with GenAI

Appendix

Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine™
Why is it Increasingly Difficult to Grow?
The Strategic Imperative 8™

Next Steps

Benefits and Impacts of Growth Opportunities
Next Steps
List of Exhibits
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