And, says the study, which took in responses from 1500 IT professionals working at SMBs with less than 1000 employees worldwide during July of this year, another 10% reported plans to deploy cloud-based services.
The survey, which was commissioned by social management security specialist Spiceworks, also found that smaller SMBs are more aggressive when it comes to cloud services adoption than their larger SMB counterparts.
According to the report – 'SMB cloud computing adoption: what's hot and what's not' – 38% of SMBs with fewer than 20 employees use or plan to use cloud solutions in the next six months.
This adoption rate, says the study, is markedly higher than the 17% of organisations with between 20 and 99 and the 22% with more than 100 employees that use or plan to use cloud services over the same time period.
Infosecurity notes that technology companies are adopting cloud services at a faster pace. Thirty-four percent of SMBs in the tech sector use or are planning to use cloud services.
And, says the report, companies in the services sector (e.g., finance, human resources, consulting) comprise the next fastest growing vertical segment, with 22% using or planning to deploy cloud solutions. Most other industries trail closely behind with 20% adoption rates.
On the other side of the coin, 62% of SMBs said they have no plans to move to the cloud in the next 12 months, owing to technology and security concerns.
Companies with 20–99 employees and typically one full-time IT pro on staff were least likely to move, along with companies in core industrial segments (manufacturing, aerospace and engineering) and social services (government, education and healthcare).
Jay Hallberg, Spiceworks co-founder and vice president, said that small companies with little existing infrastructure and outsourced IT are moving most quickly to the cloud, whereas larger SMBs are taking more measured steps due to considerable investments in onsite technology.
"With seven times as many users as the enterprise market, it's important for cloud service vendors to consider cloud service adoption patterns and to make it simple for SMBs to manage hybrid on-premise and cloud solutions", he said.