Nearly one quarter (24 per cent) of IT budgets will be allocated to cloud solutions this year, with the highest percentage being pushed into SaaS models, according to research firm IDC.
Meanwhile, IDC estimates that the top three application areas that enterprises are planning to migrate to the cloud over the next 12 months are: business/data analytics (19 per cent); data storage/data management (18 per cent); and collaboration/ conferencing solutions, content management systems and IT infrastructure management (16 per cent).
Overall, the cloud market will be worth $350 billion by 2017, according to recent Gartner statistics, with the value of the off-premise cloud services market reaching over $200 billion by 2018, according to research firm Infonetics.
But while the big picture of rising cloud adoption is now typically associated with large enterprise adoption, unified communications software provider Swyx claims that SMEs are moving en masse to the cloud; boosted by their ability to outsource UC solutions and voice services.
Swyx has reported a 126 per cent year-on-year increase of its international user base in 2014. Its products and services are directly targeted at the SME sector.
“My interpretation of the [recent cloud]research is that many companies are starting to relocate data-based applications to the cloud and are following with voice,” said Swyx CEO Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus.
“Our 2014 sales show that even SMEs are embracing the cloud more and more by taking advantage of UC solutions hosted in a data centre. Compared to last year, the growth in the number of our cloud-users has more than doubled.”
“My prediction is that the companies that have already started to adopt other applications in the cloud and already have an affinity for hosted solutions will also look to move their telephone system as well,” he said.
